AFCON: Cote d’Ivoire 2023 kicks off with Preliminary Draw
The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Preliminary Round Draw was conducted on Friday, 21 January 2022 in Douala.
The draw marks the kickoff towards the 34th edition of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023.
The former Indomitable Lions defender and captain Rigobert Song and Nigeria Super Eagles former star Emmanuel Amunike assisted CAF Director of Competitions Samson Adamo in the draw process, that included the 12 least ranked teams.
Twelve of the continent’s least ranked countries have been pitted against each other with six winners from the preliminary stages progressing to the main groupings draw.
High-flying AFCON 2021 debutants the Gambia have been paired against Chad with Sao Tome facing Mauritius.
Read: AFCON 2021: Round of 16 matches known; Cote d’Ivoire play Egypt, Nigeria clash with Tunisia
Djibouti will play South Sudan while Lesotho engage the Seychelles.
The six aggregate winners will join the 42 highest ranked teams into the Group Stage of the qualifiers.
The games will be played between March 21st to March 29, 2022.
Following are the fixtures, with the first legs played at home of the lower ranked teams:
Eritrea v Botswana
Sao Tome and Principe v Mauritius
Djibouti v South Sudan
Seychelles v Lesotho
Somalia v Eswatini
Chad v Gambia
