CAF has announced that the draw for the qualifiers of the Morocco U23 Africa Cup of Nations, will take place on Thursday 18 August 2022 at 13:00 Cairo time (11:00 GMT).
According to CAF, 39 member Associations will be engaged in U23 AFCON qualifiers.
Hosts Nation, Morocco are automatically qualified as hosts to the final tournament. The remaining 38 teams will play the qualifiers.
The TotalEnergies U23 Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2023 scheduled in June 2023 in Morocco and will serve as qualifying tournament to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
The first round qualifiers (Home and Away) will be played from 19 to 27 September 2022.
20 least ranked teams will play the 1st round (knock out from home & away matches) qualifying 10 teams to the 2nd round.
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)
