2015 AFCON draw procedure explained

The draw for the final round of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers takes place in Cairo today at 12h30 GMT.

How Qualifying works

The draw for ‘Morocco 2015’ will be made up of seven groups of four teams who contest home and away fixtures.

The seven group winners, seven group runners-up and the best third-placed side will qualify directly for the final tournament. Host Morocco is automatically qualified.

Procedure

28 teams will be divided into 4 groups, each pot containing 7 teams based on the CAF classification.

Pot 1: Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia

Pot 2: Algeria, Angola, Cap Verde, Togo, Egypt, South Africa, Cameroun

Pot 3: RD Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Senegal, Sudan

Pot 4: The Seven yet to be decided by the preliminary round matches

(Teams in the same pot cannot be paired against each other)

Matches to decide the final 7 for Pot 4

28 teams will be divided into two pots each containing 14 teams based on CAF classification.

The 14 teams of the Level 1 – Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda, Mozambique, Benin, Sierra Leone, Congo, Central Africa Republic, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Liberia and Gambia will be in Pot A.

The 14 teams of Level 2 – Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Burundi, Lesotho, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Chad, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Comoros, Swaziland, South Sudan and Mauritania will be in Pot B.

Pot C will be empty

Step 1: A draw made to pick one team from Pot A

Step 2: A draw made to pick one team from Pot B, the team drawn from Pot A will against the

Team drawn from Pot B

Step 3: The two picked balls from step 1 and 2 will be placed together in Pot C and the first one picked will play the 1st match at home.

This operation will be repeated 14 times to determine the 28 matches. The 14 winners will play against each other to determine the final seven who will go into the final draw (the forth pot of 7 teams). Seeded Teams

Seven of the teams going into the draw to be placed who will be placed in Pot 1 are seeded. These are: Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Tunisia The Final Tournament

The final tournament will be played from January 17 to February 8, 2015 in Morocco.