2018 African Nations Championship qualification

2018 African Nations Championship qualification

Tournament details
Dates	June – October 2017
Teams	42 (from 1 confederation)

The 2018 African Nations Championship qualification will be a men's football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 African Nations Championship. Only national team players who were playing in their country's own domestic league will be eligible to compete in the tournament.

A total of 43 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including Kenya who qualified automatically as hosts.

Teams

A total of 43 CAF member national teams will enter the qualifying rounds, split into zones according to their regional affiliations.

Zone	Spots	Teams entering qualification	Did not enter
Northern Zone	2 spots	Algeria  Libya  Morocco  Tunisia	Egypt
Zone West A	2 spots	Gambia  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Liberia  Mali  Mauritania  Senegal  Sierra Leone	Cape Verde
Zone West B	3 spots	Burkina Faso  Ghana  Ivory Coast  Niger  Nigeria  Togo	Benin
Central Zone	3 spots	Cameroon  Congo  DR Congo  Equatorial Guinea  Gabon  São Tomé and Príncipe	Chad  Central African Republic
Central-East Zone	2 spots +  Kenya (hosts)	Burundi  Djibouti  Ethiopia  Rwanda  Sudan  Tanzania  Uganda	Eritrea  Somalia  South Sudan
Southern Zone	3 spots	Angola  Botswana  Comoros  Lesotho  Mauritius  Mozambique  Namibia  Seychelles  South Africa  Swaziland  Zambia  Zimbabwe	Madagascar  Malawi
Total	15 spots + hosts	43 teams

Notes

• Central African Republic were excluded by the CAF from participating because of their withdrawal against DR Congo in the 2016 African Nations Championship qualification.
• Chad withdrawn on 27 March 2016, as they annulled.

Schedule

The draw will be held in April 2017, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

The schedule of the qualifying rounds will be as follows.

Northern Zone Matchday Date Matchdays 1–3 (Host: Morocco) June 2017 Matchdays 4–6 (Host: Tunisia) August 2017 Matchdays 7–9 (Host: Algeria) October 2017

All other zones Round Matchday Date Preliminary round First leg June 2017 Second leg July 2017 First round First leg October 2017 Second leg October 2017

Format

In the Northern Zone, teams played each other on a double round-robin basis. 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 would be applied in the following order:

1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
4. Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
5. If, after applying criteria 1 to 4 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 9 apply;
6. Goal difference in all games;
7. Goals scored in all games;
8. Away goals scored in all games;
9. Drawing of lots.

In all other zones, qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).

The top two teams in the Northern Zone and the 13 winners of the first round in all other zones qualified for the final tournament.

Northern Zone

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2018 African Nations Championship
2	A2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	A3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	A4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

First match(es) will be played on June 2017. Source: CAF
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Zone West A

Seeded teams  Mali  Senegal TBD TBD

Unseeded teams  Guinea-Bissau  Sierra Leone TBD TBD

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

First round

Winners qualify for 2018 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

Zone West B

Seeded teams  Ghana TBD TBD

Unseeded teams  Togo TBD TBD

First round

Winners qualify for 2018 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

Central Zone

Seeded teams  DR Congo TBD TBD

Unseeded teams  Equatorial Guinea TBD TBD

First round

Winners qualify for 2018 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

Central-East Zone

•  Kenya qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
•  Sudan received a bye to the first round.

Seeded teams  Uganda TBD TBD

Unseeded teams  Djibouti TBD TBD

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

First round

Winners qualify for 2018 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Sudan

Southern Zone

Seeded teams  Angola  South Africa  Zimbabwe TBD TBD TBD

Unseeded teams  Botswana  Lesotho  Seychelles TBD TBD TBD

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

First round

Winners qualify for 2018 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg

Qualified teams

Team	Qualifying zone	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament
Kenya (hosts)	Central-East Zone (automatic)		0 (debut)
TBD	Northern Zone
TBD
TBD	Zone West A
TBD
TBD	Zone West B
TBD
TBD
TBD	Central Zone
TBD
TBD
TBD	Central-East Zone
TBD
TBD	Southern Zone
TBD
TBD

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

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