AFCON 2017, FIFA 2018 qualification format approved

CAF Executive Committee has approved the format of the 2017 AFCON. Fifty-two teams will go in for the preliminary round with the first from the 13 groups to qualify for the next round of qualifiers.

The best two runners-up, exclusive of the group of the host country, which only one team will qualify for the final round. Also, if due to the withdrawal of one team and a group happens to be left with just three teams, this group will not be considered when determining the best second team.

The host country of the 2017 edition will be announced on 8 April 2015 after the CAF Ordinary General Assembly in Cairo, Egypt while the qualifiers for the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations will begin in June 2015 using the two dates fixed by FIFA, 08-16 June.

For the first time in the history of the competition, the host country will participate in the qualifying stages; though the matches concerned will not be computed for points, they shall count as friendlies. The draws for the groups shall be done on 8 April 2015 in Cairo, immediately after the announcement of the host country of the 2017 edition.

It should be noted that during this meeting to approved the format of the 2017 AFCON, the format of the qualifiers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in Russia was also approved.

The competing teams will go through three preliminary rounds in order to bring the number of teams down to 20 so as to be able to constitute five (5) groups of four teams, where the first from each group will qualifier for the World Cup.

The preliminaries of the FIFA World Cup shall begin during the two FIFA dates in October 2015, given that the draws shall take place on 25 July 2015 at Saint-Petersburg in Russia.