The Confederation of African Football on Tuesday released the pots for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers ahead of the body’s general assembly set for Thursday in Cairo.
The countries have been divided into five pots according to the rankings by world football’s governing body, FIFA.
The finalists of this year’s tournament in Egypt, Senegal and Algeria, are in pot 1.
A preliminary round of games featuring teams in pot 5 is set to be held on dates to be announced.
“A team will be drawn from Pot 5 to play against a team that will be drawn from the same pot. This procedure will be repeated for the 6 remaining teams of Pot 5. The winners of the 4 sets of matches will qualify to the group stage and will automatically go to the positions A4, B4, C4 and D4,” the CAF said.
Cameroon is set to host the tournament after the CAF stripped it of the right to host AFCON 2019 due to delays in preparations and security concerns.
Pot 1: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia.
Pot 2: Benin, Cape Verde, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.
Pot 3: Angola, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Zimbabwe.
Pot 4: Burundi, Botswana, Comoros, Ethiopia, eSwatini, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho and Rwanda.
Pot 5: Chad, Djibouti, Gambia, Liberia, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles and South Sudan.
