Caf has announced an increase in the number of teams taking part in the African Nations Championship (Chan) from 16 to 18 from the next edition scheduled to take place in Algeria in early 2023.
This was communicated to the member associations after a meeting held by the executive.
"We hereby inform you that the Caf Executive Committee has approved the increase of the number of teams to 18 from the next edition of Chan with the following distributions," read a communication from the body running football in the continent.
The North Zone will have two teams in the competition and Algeria who are the hosts, while the Southern Zone is set to have three teams as well, which is the same number given to the East Zone.
The seventh edition will be played from January 8-31. Caf has revealed the dates for the qualifiers draw and explained how the 18 teams will be pooled once they make it to the competition in North Africa.
"We hereby inform you that the qualifiers draw will be held online on May 26th, 2022," the statement continued.
"The 18 teams will be divided into three groups of four teams and two groups of three teams.
"The first and second of the groups of four and the first of the group of three will qualify for the knockout stages, quarter-final, semi-final, third-place, and final."
Chan is a biennial competition meant for players in domestic leagues for their respective countries of origin.
The competition was started in 2009 and the first edition was held in Ivory Coast. The Democratic Republic of Congo won it after defeating Ghana 2-0 in the final. The former won it again in 2016.
Morocco have also won it twice -2018, and 2020 while Tunisia and Libya have managed to lift the trophy once each.
.png?auto=webp&format=pjpg&width=640&quality=60)