Chan draw – Exempt in the first round: Senegal will play the winner of Liberia-Sierra Leone

Thursday 10th October 2024 12:08 PM

Bye in the first round following the qualifying draw for Chan 2024, Senegal will play the winner of Liberia-Sierra Leone next December.

This Wednesday, Caf carried out the draw for the Chan 2024 qualifiers, the final phase of which will take place from February 1 to 28, 2025 in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Due to the tripartite organization, this 8th edition of the African Nations Championship, the equivalent of the Can for local players, will be contested with 19 participants including the three host countries, automatically qualified. It will be the same for Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, which automatically recover the three qualifying places in the North Africa Zone (Unaf).

Derby Mali-Mauritania and Guinea-Guinea Bissau

In Zone Wafu A (West Africa A), Senegal, defending champion, inherits a very affordable draw since it will face the winner of the first round between Liberia and Sierra Leone next December. The Wafu B Zone will also be marked by Ivory Coast-Burkina Faso and Ghana-Nigeria clashes, a remake of the qualifications of the last edition, which turned to the advantage of the Elephants and the Black Stars. At the same time, Niger, semi-finalist in 2023, will play its place against the winner of the first round between Togo and Benin. In the Uniffac Zone (Central Africa), DR Congo will start favorite against Chad, the same for Cameroon against Central Africa. Congo and Equatorial Guinea will compete for the last ticket. Gabon is not involved.

In the Cosafa Zone (southern Africa), South Africa and the Comoros have, as usual, also decided not to participate, notably unlike Angola and Madagascar, semi-finalist the last edition, who are both exempt from the first qualifying round.

Finally, in the Cecafa Zone (Central and East Africa), the three host countries will still take part in the qualifications and only one team will be able to accompany them. Caf did not say more about the qualification methods for this last place.

The first round of qualifying will take place from October 25 to 27 (first leg) and November 1 to 3 (return matches), except for the many exempt countries. The second round will take place from December 20 to 22 (outbound) and from December 27 to 29 (return).