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2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

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2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
Tournament details
Dates20 March – 19 November 2024
Teams52 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played151
Goals scored331 (2.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)Morocco Brahim Díaz
(7 goals)
← 2023
2027 →
Qualification for championships (CAF)
FIFA World Cup
Africa Cup of Nations

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the 35th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. The qualification began with the preliminary round, which ran from 20 to 26 March 2024, and concluded with the group stage, which was played in September, October and November, all in 2024. A total of 24 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including automatically-qualified hosts Morocco.

Entrants

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All CAF member associations entered the competition, except Eritrea and Seychelles, who were excluded from the qualifiers. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 15 February 2024, with teams ranked 1st to 44th received a bye to the qualifying group stage, while the teams ranked 45th to 52nd had to participate in the preliminary round.[1]

The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[2]

For the first time since their suspensions, Kenya and Zimbabwe made their phased returns to the qualifying stage.

From the February 2024 FIFA World Rankings[3]
Bye to group stage Participating in preliminary round
  1.  Morocco (12; hosts)
  2.  Senegal (17)
  3.  Nigeria (28)
  4.  Egypt (36)
  5.  Ivory Coast (39)
  6.  Tunisia (41)
  7.  Algeria (43)
  8.  Mali (47)
  9.  Cameroon (51)
  10.  South Africa (58)
  11.  Burkina Faso (61)
  12.  DR Congo (63)
  13.  Cape Verde (65)
  14.  Ghana (67)
  15.  Guinea (76)
  16.  Equatorial Guinea (79)
  17.  Gabon (84)
  18.  Zambia (87)
  19.  Uganda (92)
  20.  Angola (93)
  21.  Benin (98)
  22.  Mauritania (106)
  23.  Namibia (107)
  24.  Madagascar (109)
  25.  Mozambique (110)
  26.  Kenya (111)
  27.  Congo (112)
  28.  Togo (116)
  29.  Guinea-Bissau (118)
  30.  Tanzania (119)
  31.  Libya (120)
  32.  Comoros (121)
  33.  Malawi (122)
  34.  Zimbabwe (124)
  35.  Sierra Leone (126)
  36.  Sudan (127)
  37.  Niger (128)
  38.  Central African Republic (129)
  39.  Gambia (130)
  40.  Rwanda (133)
  41.  Burundi (140)
  42.  Ethiopia (145)
  43.  Botswana (146)
  44.  Lesotho (148)
  1.  Eswatini (149)
  2.  Liberia (152)
  3.  South Sudan (166)
  4.  Mauritius (177)
  5.  Chad (181)
  6.  São Tomé and Príncipe (191)
  7.  Djibouti (192)
  8.  Somalia (198)

Schedule

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The schedule of the qualifying tournament was as follows.[4]

Round Matchday Dates Matches
Preliminary round First leg 20–22 March 2024 Team 1 vs. Team 2
Second leg 26 March 2024 Team 2 vs. Team 1
Group stage Matchday 1 2–10 September 2024 Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4
Matchday 2 Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 4 vs. Team 1
Matchday 3 7–15 October 2024 Team 1 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 4
Matchday 4 Team 3 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2
Matchday 5 11–19 November 2024 Team 2 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 3
Matchday 6 Team 3 vs. Team 2, Team 1 vs. Team 4

Preliminary round

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification preliminary round

The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.[2]

Team 1Agg. Tooltip Aggregate scoreTeam 21st leg2nd leg
Somalia 2–5 Eswatini0–32–2
São Tomé and Príncipe 1–1 (a) South Sudan1–10–0
Chad 3–1 Mauritius1–02–1
Djibouti 0–2 Liberia0–20–0

Group stage

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Draw

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The group stage draw took place on 4 July 2024 at 2:30 pm (UTC+2) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each, which consisted of the 44 teams that entered directly, in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round, and were seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the June 2024 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses).[5][6]

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4

 Morocco (12; hosts)
 Senegal (18)
 Egypt (36)
 Ivory Coast (37)
 Nigeria (38)
 Tunisia (41)
 Algeria (44)
 Cameroon (49)
 Mali (50)
 South Africa (59)
 DR Congo (61)
 Ghana (64)

 Cape Verde (65)
 Burkina Faso (67)
 Guinea (77)
 Gabon (83)
 Equatorial Guinea (89)
 Zambia (90)
 Benin (91)
 Angola (92)
 Uganda (94)
 Namibia (97)
 Mozambique (103)
 Madagascar (104)

 Kenya (108)
 Mauritania (112)
 Congo (113)
 Tanzania (114)
 Guinea-Bissau (115)
 Libya (118)
 Comoros (119)
 Togo (120)
 Sudan (121)
 Sierra Leone (122)
 Malawi (125)
 Central African Republic (127)

 Niger (128)
 Zimbabwe (129)
 Rwanda (131)
 Gambia (132)
 Burundi (140)
 Liberia (142)
 Ethiopia (143)
 Botswana (145)
 Lesotho (149)
 Eswatini (154)
 South Sudan (167)
 Chad (178)

Tiebreakers

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The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 14):

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  6. Goal difference in all group matches;
  7. Goals scored in all group matches;
  8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
  9. Drawing of lots

Group A

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group A
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Comoros 6 3 3 0 7 4 +3 12 Final tournament — 1–1 1–1 1–0
2  Tunisia 6 3 1 2 7 6 +1 10 0–1 — 0–1 1–0
3  Gambia 6 2 2 2 6 6 0 8 1–2 1–2 — 1–0
4  Madagascar 6 0 2 4 4 8 −4 2 1–1 2–3 1–1 —
Source: CAF

Group B

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group B
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Morocco[a] 6 6 0 0 26 2 +24 18 Final tournament — 4–1 7–0 5–0
2  Gabon 6 3 1 2 7 9 −2 10 1–5 — 0–0 2–0
3  Lesotho 6 1 1 4 2 13 −11 4 0–1 0–2 — 1–0
4  Central African Republic 6 1 0 5 3 14 −11 3 0–4 0–1 3–1 —
Source: CAF
Notes:
  1. ^ Morocco had already qualified for the final tournament as the host nation.

Group C

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group C
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Egypt 6 4 2 0 12 2 +10 14 Final tournament — 1–1 2–0 3–0
2  Botswana 6 2 2 2 4 7 −3 8 0–4 — 1–1 1–0
3  Mauritania 6 2 1 3 3 6 −3 7 0–1 1–0 — 1–0
4  Cape Verde 6 1 1 4 3 7 −4 4 1–1 0–1 2–0 —
Source: CAF

Group D

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group D
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Nigeria 6 3 2 1 9 3 +6 11 Final tournament — 3–0 1–2 1–0
2  Benin 6 2 2 2 7 7 0 8[a] 1–1 — 3–0 2–1
3  Rwanda 6 2 2 2 5 7 −2 8[a] 0–0 2–1 — 0–1
4  Libya 6 1 2 3 3 7 −4 5 0–3[b] 0–0 1–1 —
Source: CAF
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Head-to-head points: Benin 3, Rwanda 3. Head-to-head goal difference: Benin +2, Rwanda –2
  2. ^ Nigeria were awarded a 3–0 win following an incident upon their arrival in Libya, where they were stranded at the airport for over 12 hours, before ultimately refusing to play and pulling out.[7]

Group E

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group E
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Algeria 6 5 1 0 16 2 +14 16 Final tournament — 2–0 5–1 5–1
2  Equatorial Guinea 6 2 2 2 5 8 −3 8 0–0 — 2–2 1–0
3  Togo 6 1 2 3 7 10 −3 5 0–1 3–0 — 1–1
4  Liberia 6 1 1 4 4 12 −8 4 0–3 1–2 1–0 —
Source: CAF

Group F

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group F
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Angola 6 4 2 0 7 2 +5 14 Final tournament — 2–1 2–0 1–1
2  Sudan 6 2 2 2 4 6 −2 8 0–0 — 1–0 2–0
3  Niger 6 2 1 3 7 6 +1 7 0–1 4–0 — 1–1
4  Ghana 6 0 3 3 3 7 −4 3 0–1 0–0 1–2 —
Source: CAF

Group G

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group G
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Zambia 6 4 1 1 7 4 +3 13 Final tournament — 1–0 3–2 0–0
2  Ivory Coast 6 4 0 2 12 3 +9 12 2–0 — 4–1 4–0
3  Sierra Leone 6 1 2 3 5 10 −5 5 0–2 1–0 — 0–0
4  Chad 6 0 3 3 1 8 −7 3 0–1 0–2 1–1 —
Source: CAF

Group H

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group H
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  DR Congo 6 4 0 2 7 3 +4 12 Final tournament — 1–0 1–0 1–2
2  Tanzania 6 3 1 2 5 4 +1 10 0–2 — 1–0 0–0
3  Guinea 6 3 0 3 9 5 +4 9 1–0 1–2 — 4–1
4  Ethiopia 6 1 1 4 3 12 −9 4 0–2 0–2 0–3 —
Source: CAF

Group I

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group I
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Mali 6 4 2 0 10 1 +9 14 Final tournament — 1–1 1–0 6–0
2  Mozambique 6 3 2 1 9 5 +4 11 0–1 — 2–1 1–1
3  Guinea-Bissau 6 1 2 3 4 6 −2 5 0–0 1–2 — 1–0
4  Eswatini 6 0 2 4 2 13 −11 2 0–1 0–3 1–1 —
Source: CAF

Group J

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group J
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Cameroon 6 4 2 0 8 2 +6 14 Final tournament — 2–1 4–1 1–0
2  Zimbabwe 6 2 3 1 6 4 +2 9 0–0 — 1–1 3–1
3  Kenya 6 1 3 2 4 7 −3 6 0–1 0–0 — 0–0
4  Namibia 6 0 2 4 2 7 −5 2 0–0 0–1 1–2 —
Source: CAF

Group K

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group K
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  South Africa 6 4 2 0 16 5 +11 14 Final tournament — 2–2 5–0 3–0
2  Uganda 6 4 1 1 8 5 +3 13 0–2 — 2–0 1–0
3  Congo 6 1 1 4 4 12 −8 4 1–1 0–1 — 1–0
4  South Sudan 6 1 0 5 6 12 −6 3 2–3 1–2 3–2 —
Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group L

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Main article: 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification Group L
Pos Team
 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Senegal 6 5 1 0 10 1 +9 16 Final tournament — 1–1 2–0 4–0
2  Burkina Faso 6 3 1 2 10 7 +3 10 0–1 — 4–1 3–1
3  Burundi 6 1 1 4 4 11 −7 4[a] 0–1 0–2 — 0–0
4  Malawi 6 1 1 4 6 11 −5 4[a] 0–1 3–0 2–3 —
Source: CAF
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Head-to-head points: Burundi 4, Malawi 1.

Goalscorers

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There were 331 goals scored in 151 matches, for an average of 2.19 goals per match.

7 goals

6 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Qualified teams

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The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1
 Morocco Hosts / Group B winners 27 September 2023 19 (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Burkina Faso Group L runners-up 13 October 2024 13 (1978, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2023)
 Cameroon Group J winners 14 October 2024 21 (1970, 1972, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Algeria Group E winners 14 October 2024 20 (1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 DR Congo Group H winners 15 October 2024 20 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023)
 Senegal Group L winners 15 October 2024 17 (1965, 1968, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Egypt Group C winners 15 October 2024 26 (1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Angola Group F winners 15 October 2024 9 (1996, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2023)
 Equatorial Guinea Group E runners-up 13 November 2024 4 (2012, 2015, 2021, 2023)
 Ivory Coast Group G runners-up 13 November 2024 25 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Gabon Group B runners-up 14 November 2024 8 (1994, 1996, 2000, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021)
 Uganda Group K runners-up 14 November 2024 7 (1962, 1968, 1974, 1976, 1978, 2017, 2019)
 South Africa Group K winners 14 November 2024 11 (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2023)
 Tunisia Group A runners-up 14 November 2024 21 (1962, 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Nigeria Group D winners 14 November 2024 20 (1963, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Mali Group I winners 15 November 2024 13 (1972, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023)
 Zambia Group G winners 15 November 2024 18 (1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2023)
 Zimbabwe Group J runners-up 15 November 2024 5 (2004, 2006, 2017, 2019, 2021)
 Comoros Group A winners 15 November 2024 1 (2021)
 Sudan Group F runners-up 18 November 2024 9 (1957, 1959, 1963, 1970, 1972, 1976, 2008, 2012, 2021)
 Benin Group D runners-up 18 November 2024 4 (2004, 2008, 2010, 2019)
 Tanzania Group H runners-up 19 November 2024 3 (1980, 2019, 2023)
 Botswana Group C runners-up 19 November 2024 1 (2012)
 Mozambique Group I runners-up 19 November 2024 5 (1986, 1996, 1998, 2010, 2023)
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.

References

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  1. ^ "Draw for TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Preliminary Round set for Tuesday". CAFOnline.com. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Preliminary Draw conducted". CAFOnline.com. 20 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 15 February 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  4. ^ Oyebola, Mike (25 December 2023). "CAF announces kick-off date for AFCON 2025 qualifiers". Daily Post Nigeria. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Draw for TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Qualifiers set for 04 July in Johannesburg". Draw for TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Qualifiers set for 04 July in Johannesburg. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
  6. ^ "Men's Ranking". FIFA. 20 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  7. ^ "الاتحاد الإفريقي لكرة القدم "كاف" يقرر خسارة المنتخب الليبي أمام نظيره المنتخب النيجيري" [The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has decided that the Libyan national team will lose to its Nigerian counterpart.]. beIN Sports (in Arabic). 26 October 2024. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
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