CAF confirms AFCON draw Pot seedings

Ahead of the much anticipated Africa Cup of Nations 2019 draw, Caf has revealed the Pots in which each qualified country is seeded.

Much of the focus is on the dangerous nations in Pot Three which has Kenya, Uganda, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, Mauritania, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Tanzania, Angola, and Madagascar.

The top-seeded nations in Pot 1 will be looking to avoid potential dark horses South Africa. Another underrated nation, Zimbabwe is in Pot 4 and they are the team to avoid from that Pot.

Below is how the rest of the countries have been seeded ahead of the draw in Cairo.

Pot 1 : Egypt, Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Morocco

Pot 2 : DR Congo, Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Algeria

Pot 3 : South Africa, Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Madagascar, Kenya

Pot 4 : Zimbabwe, Namibia, Guinea Bissau, Angola, Tanzania, Burundi

The first Pot of seeds mainly includes nations who participated in the 2018 Fifa World Cup. The only exception is Cameroon who are the reigning African champions.

In Pot 2 there's Ghana, Ivory Coast and Algeria who have made it to previous World Cups and will also be among the favourites to win the Afcon. DR Congo is one of the international team's who are progressing impressively over the past year and could also be a threat to the top seeds.

The draw will take place at the Pyramids in Cairo and starts at 6pm GMT. The 24 finalists will be placed into six groups of four teams each, and from there 16 teams will progress to the knockout round, using the same format of Uefa Euro 2016.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s coach Sebastian Migne has expressed his appreciation for meeting with Nigeria and Senegal's coaches and learning from their World Cup experiences.

Migne was in attendance at the Caf sponsored pre-Afcon coaches workshop in Cairo.

“It was brilliant to meet with other coaches and exchange ideas. It was also great to learn from Gernot Rohr and Alliou Cisse about their World Cup experience and how it is close to the Afcon because of the expansion now. I think it was a very good idea for the capacity building,” Migne told Cafonline .

Kenya’s team manager Daniel Kawinzi lauded the organizers of the competition for their preparations ahead of the tournament.

“I am really happy with the plans the organizers have for the Afcon. We did the drawing for hotels and I think it is something very vital for planning and it will ensure we prepare the team in a better way before and when we are in Egypt. This workshop was really enlightening,” Kawinzi said.

The Afcon starts on June 21 and the final is set to be played on July 19.