Malabo
Alongside Sunday’s draw in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) for the 2012 African Cup of Nations, CAF revealed the start of the path that some teams will have to take to reach the 2013 Finals in South Africa.
Teams will have to play a minimum of two and a maximum of six matches to reach the finals, with the Qualification format split into three rounds.
The Preliminary Round features the lowest four-ranked teams in the tournament play-off over two legs, with two progressing to the 28-team First Round (where all other non-qualifiers for the 2012 tournament enter), which follows a similar format to find 14 teams to join a 32-strong Second Round (alongside the 16 teams participating in the 2012 African Cup of Nations).
The most notable of the First Round ties is Egypt taking on Central African Republic, the latter of whom came so close to a first qualification in 2012. Other notable matchups include Nigeria playing Rwanda, and Algeria taking on Gambia.
While the draw for the Second Round (which will be played in September and October 2012) will be made nearer the time, the line-up for the Preliminary Round and First Round (both set for early-mid 2012) can be seen below (first-leg fixtures shown):
2013 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers – Preliminary Round – Draw
SEY v SWZ
STP v LES
Not Participating in Tournament: COM, DJI, ERI, MTN, MRI, SOM
2013 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers – First Round – Draw:
ETH v BEN
RWA v NGA
CGO v UGA
BDI v ZIM
ALG v GAM
KEN v TOG
PR2 v SLE
GNB v CMR
CHA v MWI
PR1 v COD
TAN v MOZ
CTA v EGY
MAD v CPV
LBR v NAM
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