Yesterday, CAF revealed the system of qualifiers for the next year's cup of nations http://www.cafonline.com/userfiles/file/Accreditations/EXCO Press Release 24 jan (1).pdf The main points are: From 51 nations that will play in qualifiers, 30 of them will play in the preliminary round(s), i don' t know how many, but it seems logic that it would need 2-3 preliminary rounds to get the 7 winners out of it. 1) 4 lowest ranked teams play in the first playoff round 2) 2 winners from 1. PR are joined by other 26 teams, so 14 matchup winners go into the last playoff round where 3) the winners of 7 matches qualify for group stage. Those 7 winners will join 21 nations with automatic passage to group stage, and then 7 groups will be drawn with 4 teams each, with the top 2 from each group qualifying directly to Morocco. Automatically qualified for group stages: Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Togo, Egypt, South Africa, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Senegal, Sudan Teams in preliminary qualifiers: Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda, Mozambique, Benin, Sierra Leone, Congo, CAR, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Liberia, Gambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Burundi, Lesotho, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Chad, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius, Swaziland, Eritrea, Mauritania, South Sudan Ranking system determined for this is on the pages 3,4 and 5 on the document at the start of the page. Draw will be held in late April, that's it for now.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26544928 Malawi pulls out of qualifiers because of lack of funds. Needs to be seen yet what effect will this have on qualifying system, probably one team will have bye to round 3 . Meanwhile, first preliminary round draw was held, and matchups are: Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg Mauritania Mauritius 11–13 Apr 18–20 Apr Eritrea South Sudan 11–13 Apr 18–20 Apr Whole schedule for qualifiers: Round Matchday Date Preliminary rounds First round 1st leg 11–13 April 2014 First round 2nd leg 18–20 April 2014 Second round 1st leg 16–18 May 2014 Second round 2nd leg 30 May–1 June 2014 Third round 1st leg 18–20 July 2014 Third round 2nd leg 1–3 August 2014 Group stage Matchday 1 5–6 September 2014 Matchday 2 10 September 2014 Matchday 3 10–11 October 2014 Matchday 4 15 October 2014 Matchday 5 14–15 November 2014 Matchday 6 19 November 2014
The Eritrean Football Federation has informed CAF of its decision to withdraw from the 30th edition of the African Cup of Nations Morocco 2015. Consequently, the preliminary round qualifier matches between Eritrea and South Sudan are cancelled. As a result, South Sudan is qualified to the next round of the qualification competition. http://www.cafonline.com/competitio...ws/19882-eritrea-withdraws-from-can-2015.html
And to add to my upper post, Malawi at the end, DID NOT withdraw from qualifiers, it was false alarm. Eritrea withdrawal is good news for South Sudan, it will be interesting to see them against some tougher opponents.
Mauritius - Mauritania 0:2 27th April the date for the draw of the 2. preliminary round and the group stage Seeds are teams in bold Libya (10.5 pts) Equatorial Guinea (9 pts) Botswana (8 pts) Malawi (7 pts) Uganda (6.5 pts) Mozambique (6 pts) Benin (5.5 pts) Sierra Leone (5 pts) Congo (5 pts) Central African Republic (4.5 pts) Zimbabwe (4 pts) Kenya (4 pts) Liberia (3.5 pts) Gambia (3.5 pts) Rwanda (3.5 pts) Tanzania (3.5 pts) Namibia (3 pts) Burundi (2 pts) Lesotho (2 pts) Guinea-Bissau (1.5 pts) Madagascar (1.5 pts) Chad (1 pt) Sao Tomé and Príncipe (1 pt) Seychelles (1 pts) Comoros (0.5 pts) Swaziland (0.5 pts) Mauritania (0 pts) South Sudan (0 pts)
Final draw: Some really spicy groups! DAMNNNN! http://www.cafonline.com/competitio...012/news/20064-final-round-of-qualifiers.html I just ripped the tables from WIKI. Much easier than typing it all out Team Nigeria South Africa Sudan Winner 5/6 Group B Team Mali Algeria Ethiopia Winner 11/12 Group C Team Burkina Faso Angola Gabon Winner 1/2 Group D Team Ivory Coast Cameroon DR Congo Winner 9/10 Group E Team Ghana Togo Guinea Winner 3/4 Group F Team Zambia Cape Verde Niger Winner 13/14 Group G Team Tunisia Egypt Senegal Winner 7/8 TeamPldWDLGFGAGDPts Tunisia00000000 Egypt00000000 Senegal00000000 Winner 7/8
Groups D and G are DR Congo has potential to mix it up in that group if they play with full squad. Preliminary round pairs: Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg Liberia 1 Lesotho 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Kenya 2 Comoros 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Madagascar 3 Uganda 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Mauritania 4 Equatorial Guinea 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Namibia 5 Congo 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Libya 6 Rwanda 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Burundi 7 Botswana 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Central African Republic 8 Guinea-Bissau 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Swaziland 9 Sierra Leone 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Gambia 10 Seychelles 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun São Tomé and Príncipe 11 Benin 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Malawi 12 Chad 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Tanzania 13 Zimbabwe 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun Mozambique 14 South Sudan 16–18 May 30 May–1 Jun 14 winners of this go into the next round where 7 winners of that go into the group stage. Pairs are 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8... Would like to see some of these teams: Kenya/Liberia, Uganda/Mauritania, Congo, CAR or Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Chad and Tanzania in the group stage.
My Picks to qualify for 2015 after today's group draw Host- Morocco Group A - Nigeria, South Africa Group B - Algeria, Mali Group C - Burkina Faso, Angola Group D - Ivory Coast, Cameroon Group E - Ghana, Uganda Group F - Zambia, Cape Verde Group G - Egypt, Senegal Best Third Place - Tunisia
my predictions : Morroco Nigeria South africa Soudan Libya : Nigeria Soudan Mali, Algerie Ethiopie Benin : Mali Algerie Burkina Gabon Angola Liberia : Burkina Gabon CIV RDC Cameroun Gambie : Cote d'ivoire Congo (i think that cameroon will lose in gambia, in RDC and made a drax with rdc in cameroon) Ghana Togo Guinée Mauritanie : Ghana Togo Zambie Cap vert Niger Tanzanie : Zambie Cap vert Tunisie Egypt Senegal Centrafrique : Egypt senegal And i think the "best 3rd" will not be the strongest one but will be the one who have the weakest "4th". So the 3rd of group G will not be a best 3rd because get 6 points from centrafrique is difficult and because winning in gambia is very tough. I think the best third will be angola or guinea
Gambia disqualified for two years from all CAF competitions because their u20 team used overaged players in qualifiers for youth championships. That means Seychelles go through and they will play against the winners of Sierra Leone/Swaziland. And the winner of that goes in to group of death, so very likely it will be Sierra Leone, DRC, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Call me an idiot, but i see SLE and DRC surprising one or two in the qualifiers, they are not a bad teams, SLE had good results lately, and DRC has quality players. Yes, top two teams are a class up, but we are talking about african football so anything is possible
oh really ?! so it change everything in the group D. I think that sierra leone is quite weaker than gambia. Winning in gambia is a good performance. but winning in sierra leone is easily doable for the other teams of the group. I think Cameroun or RDC could be the best third.... the good thing is that we will see the sierra leone crazy jersey :-D
Just only looked at Group G... crazy tough group. Especially with CAR as the fourth nation. It should be noted that Habib Habibou may well be the top African scorer in Europe this season with 23 goals in all competitions. Anyone know why the guy has yet to even be called up for CAR?
He has been called up once, i think for first leg against Burkina Faso but some travel issues made him unavailable as far as i recall. Jemeldz, i disagree that Sierra Leone is weaker than Gambia, they missed out at 2012 CAN because of away goals rule against Tunisia 2-2 and 0-0, and had solid results in WCQ against Tunisia again and Cape Verde. I won't say they won't end up last, but matches in Freetown will be very very interesting
Madagascar - Uganda 2:1 Kenya- Comoros 1:0 Mozambique - South Sudan 5:0 Swaziland - Sierra Leone 1:1 Tanzania - Zimbabwe 1:0 Burundi - Botswana 0:0 CAR - Guniea Bissau 0:0 Libya - Rwanda 0:0 Liberia - Lesotho 1:0
Friday matches (30th may) Comoros - Kenya 1-1 (agg. 1-2) South Sudan - Mozambique 0-0 (agg. 0-5) Saturday matches (31th may) Uganda - Madagascar 1-0 (agg. 2-2 - Uganda advanced to the next round) Rwanda - Libya 3-0 (agg. 3-0) Chad - Malawi 3-1 (agg. 3-3 - Malawi advanced to the next round) Guinea-Bissau - Central African Rep. 3-1 (agg. 3-1) Sierra Leone - Swaziland 1-0 (agg. 2-1) Monday matches (1st june) Lesotho - Liberia 2-0 (agg. 2-1) Zimbabwe - Tanzania 2-2 (agg. 2-3) Botswana - Burundi 1-0 (agg. 1-0)
Also... Congo - Namibia 3-0 (agg. 3-1) Benin - Sao Tome & Principe 2-0 (agg. 4-0) Equatorial Guinea - Mauritania 3-0 (agg. 3-1) Second Round (18-20.7. and 1-3.8.2014) Lesotho - Kenya Uganda - Equatorial Guinea Congo - Rwanda Botswana - Guinea-Bissau Sierra Leone - Seychelles Benin - Malawi Tanzania - Mozambique
Very happy for Tanzania, if they pass Mozambique they will go into the group with Niger, Cape Verde and Zambia. Would like to see Samatta & Ulimwengu duo making mess in the group stages and who knows, book a place in Morocco
Breaking news: Equatorial Guinea disqualified for fielding (for what, 155050 time in few years?) an ineligible player, who hasn't got EQG citizenship. That means Mauritania will face Uganda in this round of qualifiers.
Is there any long term effect from this mistake, especially since they've done it before? For example, Mexico was banned from the '90 World Cup due to using overage players in a youth tournament. It seems like Equatorial Guinea apparently keeps doing this with the worst case scenario being forfeiting the game.
Prob not, stuff like that is quite common in African tournaments. Contrary to popular belief the vast majority of migration of Africans happens between African countries rather than across the Mediterranean to Europe. With unprofessional FAs around ( well, more unprofessional than the rest...) there'll always be issues with papers.