Focus shifts to Afcon 2023
Fahd Bayo scored against Malawi in the last Afcon qualifiers. Photo / Eddie Chicco
What you need to know:
- This week, Senegal flew home with their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations trophy but already the ground is rolling with preparations for the 2023 finals that will be hosted in Ivory Coast 16 months from now.
The end of one journey is the beginning of another, so they say.
This week, Senegal flew home with their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations trophy but already the ground is rolling with preparations for the 2023 finals that will be hosted in Ivory Coast 16 months from now.
Initially, Ivory Coast won the bid to host the just concluded 2021 tournament.
Cameroon, who were to host the 2019 edition, were stripped of the rights and given to Egypt due to a delay in completing the construction of new stadiums and renovations.
It was agreed by the Caf executive to award the 2021 edition to Cameroon and the subsequent 2023 and 2025 to Ivory Coast and Guinea.
The 2021 edition was postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Fifa, in October 2018, accepted Caf’s request to change the timing of the 2023 tournament from the traditional January/February to June/July window.
This is to avoid the tournament clashing with other major leagues and tournaments in and outside the continent.
This means that the Ivory Coast finals will be held from June 23 to July 23, 16 months after the just-concluded one.
The Ivorians will be hosting their first final since 1984 when they hosted their maiden. The Elephants are two-time champions after winning the 1992 and 2015 editions.
Road to Abidjan
The 2023 edition which will be the 34th tournament after the first one played in 1957 will also be the third to host 24 teams. The qualifiers start on March 19 with the preliminary rounds.
The round will see 12 lowest ranked nations by Fifa as per November 2021 rankings play a two-legged fixture with the six winners advancing to the group stage to join 42 others including Uganda in the 12 pools.
The draws were carried out on January 21 in Douala, Cameroon. That pool includes ‘minnows’ such as Eritrea, Botswana, São Tomé and Príncipe, Mauritius, Djibouti, South Sudan, Seychelles, Lesotho, Somalia, Eswatini, Chad and Gambia. The two-legged affairs will be played between March 19 and 29.
The draws and dates for the group stage qualifiers will be conducted after the completion of the preliminary round.
The newly-crowned Afcon finalists Senegal and the other three semi-finalists Egypt, Cameroon and Burkina Faso have been seeded in pot one and cannot face each other.
Uganda and neighbours Kenya are in pot 2 while Tanzania, Rwanda and Sudan are in pot 4.
The 12 group winners and runners-up will join Ivory Coast in the finals. The hosts will be drawn in the group stages but only one other team from their group will qualify.
