The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, the 35th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. The qualification began with the preliminary round, which ran from 20 to 26 March 2024, and concluded with the group stage, which was played in September, October and November, all in 2024. A total of 24 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including automatically-qualified hosts Morocco.
Entrants All CAF member associations entered the competition, except Eritrea and Seychelles, who were excluded from the qualifiers. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 15 February 2024, with teams ranked 1st to 44th received a bye to the qualifying group stage, while the teams ranked 45th to 52nd had to participate in the preliminary round.
The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.
For the first time since their suspensions, Kenya and Zimbabwe made their phased returns to the qualifying stage.
+From the February 2024 FIFA World RankingsBye to group stageParticipating in preliminary round (12; hosts) (17) (28) (36) (39) (41) (43) (47) (51) (58) (61) (63) (65) (67) (76) (79) (84) (87) (92) (93) (98) (106) (107) (109) (110) (111) (112) (116) (118) (119) (120) (121) (122) (124) (126) (127) (128) (129) (130) (133) (140) (145) (146) (148)
Schedule The schedule of the qualifying tournament was as follows.
RoundMatchdayDatesMatchesPreliminary roundFirst leg20–22 March 2024Team 1 vs. Team 2Second leg26 March 2024Team 2 vs. Team 1Group stageMatchday 14–10 September 2024Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4Matchday 2Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 4 vs. Team 1Matchday 310–15 October 2024Team 1 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 4Matchday 4Team 3 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2Matchday 513–19 November 2024Team 2 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 3Matchday 6Team 3 vs. Team 2, Team 1 vs. Team 4
Preliminary round
The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.
Group stage Draw The group stage draw took place on 4 July 2024 at 14:30 (UTC+2) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each, which consisted of the 44 teams that entered directly, in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round, and were seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the June 2024 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses).
Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (12; hosts) (18) (36) (37) (38) (41) (44) (49) (50) (59) (61) (64) (65) (67) (77) (83) (89) (90) (91) (92) (94) (97) (103) (104) (108) (112) (113) (114) (115) (118) (119) (120) (121) (122) (125) (127) (128) (129) (131) (132) (140) (142) (143) (145) (149) (154) (167) (178)
Tiebreakers The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 14): Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Away goals scored in all group matches; Drawing of lots
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
Group K
Group L
Goalscorers
Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1 19 (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 13 (1978, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2023) 21 (1970, 1972, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 20 (1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 20 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023) 17 (1965, 1968, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 26 (1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 9 (1996, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2023) 4 (2012, 2015, 2021, 2023) 25 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 8 (1994, 1996, 2000, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021) 7 (1962, 1968, 1974, 1976, 1978, 2017, 2019) 11 (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2023) 21 (1962, 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 20 (1963, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2021, 2023) 13 (1972, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023) 18 (1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2023) 5 (2004, 2006, 2017, 2019, 2021) 1 (2021) 9 (1957, 1959, 1963, 1970, 1972, 1976, 2008, 2012, 2021) 4 (2004, 2008, 2010, 2019) 3 (1980, 2019, 2023) 1 (2012) 5 (1986, 1996, 1998, 2010, 2023) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.
References