The Preliminary Draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has been drawn as Liberia will face Djibouti in the first round.
The Preliminary Draw for the 2025 Nations Cup scheduled to be held in Morocco will see the least-ranked teams in the FIFA ranking play the preliminary round and the remaining 44 teams will be exempted and will play directly in the group stage. Somalia will face Eswatini, Sao Tome battle South Sudan and Chad face Mauritius in the draws. The home and away match will be played between the 20th and 26th of March 2024.
The winners of the four preliminary round ties will advance to the group stage of the qualifiers, joining 44 other countries. The 48 teams will be drawn into 12 groups of four with the top two in each group qualifying for the finals in Morocco. Morocco will also participate despite qualifying automatically as hosts, so only one other country will qualify from their group.
Morocco wants to play the tournament in mid-2025, despite a clash with the newly expanded Club World Cup in that will be held in the United States. The qualifiers for the Cup of Nations finals will be completed by the end of the year. They are being played in the three international windows in September, October and November with two rounds of matches in each window.
