The anticipation for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is building up as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) recently unveiled the preliminary round draw.
Held at CAF’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday, the draw marked a significant step forward in the journey towards the prestigious tournament. This initial phase of the draw involved the eight lowest-ranked teams according to the last FIFA ranking.
These teams represent the first hurdle in the qualification process for the AFCON, with only the strongest advancing to compete in the main event.
2025 Africa Cup of Nations Qualifiers Matches
First leg:
Somalia vs Eswatini
Sao Tome vs South Sudan
Chad vs Mauritius
Djibouti vs Liberia
Second leg:
Eswatini vs Somalia
South Sudan vs Sao Tome
Mauritius vs Chad
Liberia vs Djibouti
The matches are scheduled to take place on a home and away basis from March 20th to March 26th, 2024.
Following these fixtures, the victorious teams from the preliminary round will advance to join the 44 exempted teams in the group stage. Eventually, a total of 24 teams will participate in the AFCON 2025 finals, set to be hosted by Morocco.
