African Nations Championship draw postponed

The Confederation of African Football has postponed the draw for the African Nations Championship qualification indefinitely.

The ceremony was initially billed for Friday, nonetheless, the continent’s body has moved it to another date yet to be announced, without explaining the reasons for their decision.“The TotalEnergies Chan Algeria 2023 qualification draw initially scheduled for Friday, 29 April 2022 has been postponed,” Caf wrote in a statement published on their website.

“Caf will communicate new dates in due course. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Chan is a biennial African football competition exclusively for players based in their home nations.

With Algeria 2023 scheduled to be held from 8 January – 31 January 2023, the teams expected to participate will be known later this year, and will have enough time to get ready for their opponents and to fine-tune their preparations.

Chan 2023 was originally scheduled to be played from 10 July to 1 August 2022. Nonetheless, Caf rescheduled it to January 2023, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Morocco are defending champions after defeating Mali in the final of the 2021 edition staged in Cameroon.

Forty-seven African countries will be aiming to qualify for the seventh edition of the tournament in an attempt to dethrone the Atlas Lions as continental kings. 

A total of 47 teams qualified to participate in the qualifiers. They will then be drawn into 12 groups of four teams (Group A to L) with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the tournament to be played in the North African country.

Hosts Morocco will also participate in the draw even though they have already secured their place in the tournament which means only one other team from their group will qualify for the competition.

Even with their temporary suspension by Fifa, Zimbabwe will also be included in the draw.

Notwithstanding if the suspension is not lifted two weeks before their first matchday of the qualifiers, the associations will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition.