AFCON2023 Group Stage Draw: 48 teams to be paired in 12 groups

The draw for the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 group stages will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 17h30 GMT (19h30 South African time).

In the build-up to the event, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released the procedures for the draw.
According to the release, 48 countries qualified to participate in the second round of the qualifiers.

They have been seeded into four pots based on the official FIFA ranking released on 31 March, 2022.

From the pots, they will then be drawn into 12 groups of four teams each labelled “Group A to L”.

The top two teams from each group will automatically qualify for the AFCON tournament to be played in Cote d’Ivoire.
The paths for possible qualification for the competition for teams will be discovered when the draw is held in the studios of SuperSport in Johannesburg.

The West African country, hosting the competition, Cote d’Ivoire will also participate in the draw even though they have already secured the place in the tournament.

Consequently, only one other team from the same group as Cote d’Ivoire will qualify for the competition.

Teams with Temporary FIFA Bans

Two teams suspended from all football activities globally by FIFA, Kenya and Zimbabwe will also be included in the draw despite their temporary bans, the CAF release stated.

Both associations will, however, be considered as losers and eliminated from the competition if the suspension is not lifted two weeks before their first match day of the qualifiers, the release further indicated.

Kenya and Zimbabwe will be drawn in different groups in order to avoid having one group with only two teams in case the suspension on both associations is not lifted.

Consequently, their groups will be composed of three teams with the first and runner-up teams of those groups qualifying to the final tournament.

Draw Procedure

The first ball will be drawn from Pot 4 and will go to position A4.
The procedure will be repeated for the remaining teams of Pot 4 who will go to positions B4, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, H4, I4, J4, K4 & L4 according to the draw order.

The same procedure as above will be repeated for Pot 3, Pot 2 and finally Pot 1.

CAF Director of Competitions, Samson Adamu

The draw will be conducted by the CAF Director of Competitions, Samson Adamu and assisted by African football legends; Lucas Radebe of South Africa and Ivorian, Solomon Kalou.

The release also noted that qualifiers will start in June 2022.

Elvis Teke

Elvis Teke

Journalist, Online Reporter, News Presenter, Programme Anchor, Peace Advocate, Geo-strategist,

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