The Uganda U23 national football team, the Uganda Kobs won’t take part in the first round of the qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON games.
These are scheduled to take place next year 2023 in Morocco. In a draw announced on Monday 18 teams are going to take part in the first preliminary round.
A total of 39 teams are to take place in the qualifiers. However, Morocco won’t take part in these qualifiers as they have direct qualification since they are the hosts.
The first round will therefore see 18 teams take to these qualifiers. The other 20 won’t take part in the first round since the top 20 ranked teams were exempted from the round.
CAF also revealed that this tournament will be used as qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics in France.
“Schedule for the games:
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.”
