Rabat – The road to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has officially begun with the Confederation of African Football unveiling the preliminary round draw.
The draw, which took place today at CAF’s headquarters in Cairo, saw the participation of the eight lowest-ranked teams in the last FIFA ranking.
In the first leg of fixtures, the matches will be hosted in the country mentioned first. Somalia will face off against Eswatini in Somalia, Sao Tome will take on South Sudan in Sao Tome, Chad will play against Mauritius in Chad, and Djibouti will take on Liberia in Djibouti.
In the second leg, the hosting order is reversed. Eswatini will host the match against Somalia, South Sudan will welcome Sao Tome, Mauritius will play host to Chad, and Liberia will have the home advantage against Djibouti.
The matches are scheduled to be played on a home and away basis between March 20 and 26, 2024. These dates coincide with the next FIFA window, scheduled from March 18 to 26.
Since March 18 and 19 are usually set for the release of players, the matches will begin on the 20th of the month.
Each national team will have two full days of rest between the first and second leg matches, according to FIFA rules.
The winners of the preliminary round matches will advance to join the 44 exempted teams for the group stage of the tournament.
However, only 24 teams will ultimately qualify for the AFCON 2025 finals, which are scheduled to take place in Morocco during summer.
CAF has given its agreement in principle for the continental tournament to take place in July and August, instead of the initially planned January through February schedule.
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