The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches are being organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the 36th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. The qualification began with the preliminary round, which ran from 25 to 31 March 2026, and concludes with the group stage, which is being played in September, October and November 2026, and March 2027 for the final rounds. A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically qualified co-hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Entrants All 54 CAF member associations entered the competition. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 19 November 2025.

A total of 48 teams, including the three co-hosts, are competing in the qualifying group stage. Teams ranked 1st to 42nd received a bye to that stage, while the teams ranked 43rd to 54th participated in the preliminary round.

Eritrea and Seychelles made their returns to the qualifying stage after being excluded in the previous edition, despite the former being unranked by FIFA at the time of seeding due to a lack of recent matches. +From the November 2025 FIFA World RankingsBye to group stageParticipating in preliminary round (11) (19) (34) (35) (38) (40) (42) (54) (56) (57) (61) (62) (68) (72) (78) (81) (85; co-hosts) (89) (90) (92) (97) (102) (105) (108) (109) (111) (112; co-hosts) (113; co-hosts) (114) (117) (118) (119) (121) (124) (126) (129) (131) (133) (134) (138) (139) (141)

Schedule The schedule of the qualifying tournament is as follows. RoundMatchdayDatesMatchesPreliminary roundFirst leg25–27 March 2026Team 1 vs. Team 2Second leg29–31 March 2026Team 2 vs. Team 1Group stageMatchday 124 September – 6 October 2026Team 1 vs. Team 2Team 3 vs. Team 4Matchday 2Team 2 vs. Team 3Team 4 vs. Team 1Matchday 39 November – 17 November 2026Team 1 vs. Team 3Team 2 vs. Team 4Matchday 4Team 3 vs. Team 1Team 4 vs. Team 2Matchday 522–30 March 2027Team 2 vs. Team 1Team 4 vs. Team 3Matchday 6Team 3 vs. Team 2Team 1 vs. Team 4

Preliminary round

The twelve teams were split into six ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.

Group stage Draw The group stage draw took place on 19 May 2026 at 15:00 (UTC+3) in Cairo, Egypt. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each, which consisted of the 42 teams that entered directly, in addition to the six winners of the preliminary round, and were seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the April 2026 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses).

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (8) (14) (26) (28) (29) (34) (44) (45) (46) (52) (60) (62) (69) (74) (80) (87) (88; co-hosts) (89) (90) (92) (101) (104) (105) (109) (111; co-hosts) (112) (113; co-hosts) (114) (115) (116) (117) (119) (120) (121) (127) (128) (130) (132) (133) (139) (140) (142) (144) (145) (146) (170) (184) (198)

Tiebreakers The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are 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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above will be 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 have qualified for the final tournament. Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1 6 (1972, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2004, 2019) 4 (1980, 2019, 2023, 2025) 8 (1962, 1968, 1974, 1976, 1978, 2017, 2019, 2025) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.

References