2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 9 October 2019 – 15 June 2021 |
| Teams | 52 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 150 |
| Goals scored | 335 (2.23 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Victor Osimhen Patson Daka(5 goals each) |
← 2019 2023 → | |
| Qualification for championships (CAF) |
|---|
The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the 33rd edition of the international men's football championship of Africa. A total of 24 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Cameroon who qualified automatically as hosts.
Seeding
The draw took place on 18 July 2019, 18:30 CAT (UTC+2), in Cairo, Egypt.[1] A total of 52 teams entered the tournament, including the hosts Cameroon, while Eritrea and Somalia chose not to enter the qualifiers.
The teams were seeded based upon their June 2019 FIFA World Rankings (ranking shown in parentheses).[2] All 44 teams from Pot 1 to Pot 4 entered the competition at the group stage, while teams from Pot 5 had to compete in the preliminary round in order to advance to the group stage.
Each group contained one team each from Pot 1, 2 and 3. Groups from A to D contained a winning team from the preliminary round, while groups from E to L contained a team from Pot 4. Teams in bold letters qualified for the final tournament.
| Pot | Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams |
|
|
|
Schedule
The schedule of the qualifying competition was as follows. After the rescheduling of the final tournament from June/July to January/February, the dates of matchdays 3–6 of the group stage were also rescheduled.[3]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all matches of matchdays 3 and 4 scheduled for March 2020 were postponed until further notice.[4] FIFA recommended that all June 2020 international matches (matchday 5) be postponed,[5] and also postponed the September 2020 window (matchday 6) for CAF.[6]
On 30 June 2020, the CAF announced the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations final tournament had been postponed from January 2021 to January 2022, without announcing the new dates of the remaining qualifiers.[7] On 19 August 2020, CAF announced the second revised dates for both Africa Cup of Nations and FIFA World Cup qualifiers.[8]
| Round | Matchday | Dates | Matches | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original dates | Revised dates | Second revised dates | |||
| Preliminary round | First leg | 9 October 2019 | Team 1 vs. Team 2 | ||
| Second leg | 13 October 2019 | Team 2 vs. Team 1 | |||
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 13–16 November 2019 | Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4 | ||
| Matchday 2 | 17–19 November 2019 | Team 4 vs. Team 1, Team 2 vs. Team 3 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 31 August – 8 September 2020 | 23–31 March 2020 | 9–17 November 2020 | Team 1 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 4 | |
| Matchday 4 | Team 3 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2 | ||||
| Matchday 5 | 5–13 October 2020 | 1–9 June 2020 | 22–30 March 2021, 15 June 2021 | Team 2 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 3 | |
| Matchday 6 | 9–17 November 2020 | 31 August – 8 September 2020 | Team 1 vs. Team 4, Team 3 vs. Team 2 | ||
Preliminary round
All eight teams from Pot 5 were drawn into four ties and played in home-and-away two-legged format. The four winners advanced to the group stage to join the 44 teams which entered directly. They went to positions A4, B4, C4 and D4 respectively based on their tie number.
| Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberia  |
1–1 (4–5 p) |  Chad |
1–0 | 0–1 |
South Sudan  |
3–1 |  Seychelles |
2–1 | 1–0 |
Mauritius  |
2–5 |  São Tomé and Príncipe |
1–3 | 1–2 |
Djibouti  |
2–2 (2–3 p) |  Gambia |
1–1 | 1–1 |
