The draw for the qualifiers of the TotalEnergies U23 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2023 will take place on Thursday 18 August 2022 at 13:00 Cairo time (11:00 GMT).
The competition scheduled in June 2023 in Morocco will serve as qualifying tournament to the Summer Olympics #Paris2024.
39 Member Associations are engaged in African qualifiers. Morocco are automatically qualified as hosts to the final tournament. The remaining 38 teams will play the qualifiers.
Also Read : MOROCCO TO HOST WAFCON FOR THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE TIME
Qualifiers Schedule:
First Round (Home and Away): 19 to 27 September 2022
Second Round (First Leg/Second Leg): 21 – 23 October 2022/28-30 October 2022
Third Round (First Leg/Second Leg): 20 to 28 March 2023
Procedures of the drawing of lots of the qualifiers of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations
Format:
– 1st round: the 20 least ranked teams will play the 1st round (knock out from home & away matches) qualifying 10 teams to the 2nd round.
– 2nd round: The 10 teams qualified from the 1st round + the 18 exempted from the 1st round will play the 2nd round (knock out from home & away *matches) qualifying 14 teams to the 3rd round.
– 3rd round: The 14 teams qualified from the 2nd round will play the 3rd round (knock out from home & away matches) qualifying 7 teams to the final tournament in addition to the host country Morocco.
First Round (19 – 27 September 2022)
The participating teams in the 1st round (20 teams):
1 team from UNAF: Libya
3 teams from WAFU A: Gambia, Guinea Bissau & Mauritania
3 teams from WAFU B: Burkina Faso, Niger & Togo
1 team from UNIFFAC: RD Congo
5 teams from CECAFA: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan & Tanzania
7 teams from COSAFA: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique & Namibia
Teams exempted according to the ranking (18 teams):
UNAF: Algeria, Egypt & Tunisia
WAFU A: Guinea, Mali, Senegal & S. Leone
WAFU B: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana & Nigeria
CECAFA: Sudan & Uganda
UNIFFAC: Cameroon, Congo & Gabon
COSAFA: South Africa & Zambia
The zones will be mixed geographically in the preliminaries as follows:
POT A: 3 teams of WAFU A + 3 teams from WAFU B
- Gambia
- Guinea Bissau
- Mauritania
- Burkina Faso
- Niger
- Togo
POT B: 5 teams of CECAFA + 1 team of UNAF:
- Djibouti
- Ethiopia
- Rwanda
- South Sudan
- Tanzania
- Libya
POT C: 7 teams of COSAFA + 1 team of UNIFFAC:
- Angola
- Botswana
- Eswatini
- Madagascar
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- RD Congo
Match 1 & 2: The 1st team drawn from pot A plays against the 2nd team drawn from pot A (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home)
Match 3 & 4: The 3rd team drawn from pot A plays against the 4th team drawn from pot A (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home)
Match 5 & 6: The 5th team drawn from pot A plays against the 6th team drawn from pot A (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home)
Match 7 & 8: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot B
Match 9 & 10: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot B
Match 11 & 12: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot B
Match 13 & 14: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot C
Match 15 & 16: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot C
Match 17 & 18: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot C
Match 19 & 20: same procedures of Pot A to be applied in pot C
Second Round
Teams of level 1 and teams of level 2 will play the winners from the 1st round by drawing of lots
Teams of level 3 will play against each other by drawing of lots.
Level 1: Egypt, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Algeria
Level 2: Ghana, Senegal, Gabon, Mali, Cameroon
Level 3: Tunisia, Zambia, Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Benin
Match 21 & 22: The 1st ball drawn from level 1 will play against winner 1/2
Match 23 & 24: The 1st ball drawn from level 3 will play against the 2nd ball drawn from level 3 (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home)
Match 25 & 26: The 2nd ball drawn from level 1 will play against winner 3/4
Match 27 & 28: The 3rd ball drawn from level 3 will play against the 4th ball drawn from level 3 (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home) _
Match 29 & 30: The 3rd ball drawn from level 1 will play against winner 5/6
Match 31 & 32: The 5th ball drawn from level 3 will play against the 6th ball drawn from level 3 (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home) _
Match 33 & 34: The 4th ball drawn from level 1 will play against winner 7/8
Match 35 & 36: The 7th ball drawn from level 3 will play against the 8th ball drawn from level 3 (1st team drawn plays 1st match at home) _
Match 37 & 38: The 5th ball drawn from level 1 will play against winner 9/10
Match 39 & 40: The 1st ball drawn from level 2 will play against winner 11/12
Match 41 & 42: The 2nd ball drawn from level 2 will play against winner 13/14
Match 43 & 44: The 3rd ball drawn from level 2 will play against winner 15/16
Match 45 & 46: The 4th ball drawn from level 2 will play against winner 17/18
Match 47 & 48: The 5th ball drawn from level 2 will play against winner 19/20
(Teams of level 1 and 2 play the 2nd leg at home)
Third Round
Match 49: win 21/22 vs winner 23/24
Match 50: win 23/24 vs winner 21/22
Match 51: win 25/26 vs winner 27/28
Match 52: win 27/28 vs winner 25/26
Match 53: win 29/30 vs winner 31/32
Match 54: win 31/32 vs winner 29/30
Match 55: win 33/34 vs winner 35/36
Match 56: win 35/36 vs winner 33/34
Match 57: win 37/38 vs winner 39/40
Match 58: win 39/40 vs winner 37/38
Match 59: win 41/42 vs winner 43/44
Match 60: win 43/44 vs winner 41/42
Match 61: win 45/46 vs winner 47/48
Match 62: win 47/48 vs winner 45/46
(Team mentioned first plays at home)