2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification

The group stage draw took place on 19 April 2022 at 19:30 SAST (UTC+2) at SuperSport Broadcasting Studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.^[5][6] The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each (from Group A to Group L), which consisted of the 42 teams which entered directly, in addition to the six winners of the preliminary round. The 48 national teams had previously been seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the March 2022 FIFA World Rankings (shown in parentheses).^[7] Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Senegal (20)  Morocco (24)  Nigeria (30)  Egypt (32)  Tunisia (35)  Cameroon (37)  Algeria (44)  Mali (52)  Ivory Coast (53)  Burkina Faso (56)  Ghana (60)  DR Congo (67)	South Africa (69)  Cape Verde (71)  Guinea (80)  Gabon (81)  Benin (84)  Uganda (86)  Zambia (87)  Congo (98)  Equatorial Guinea (99)  Madagascar (102)  Kenya (104)  Sierra Leone (108)	Namibia (112)  Mauritania (113)  Guinea-Bissau (115)  Niger (116)  Libya (117)  Mozambique (119)  Malawi (120)  Togo (121)  Zimbabwe (122)  Gambia (123)  Angola (126)  Comoros (128)	Tanzania (130)  Central African Republic (131)  Sudan (132)  Rwanda (136)  Burundi (139)  Ethiopia (140)  Eswatini (143)  Lesotho (145)  Botswana (148)  Liberia (149)  South Sudan (161)  São Tomé and Príncipe (189)

The draw started with pot 4 and ended with pot 1; each team drawn was assigned into the first available group alphabetically (A–L) and within the group was placed in the position that corresponded to it according to its pot (i.e. position 1 for teams from pot 1, position 2 for teams from pot 2, position 3 for teams from pot 3 and position 4 for teams from pot 4).^[6]

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations hosts, Ivory Coast, participated in the qualifiers despite the team being guaranteed a spot in the finals, which meant only the best ranked team within their group apart from Ivory Coast qualified for the finals. The Ivory Coast matches and results counted in determining the qualification of the other teams from their group.^[6]

Kenya and Zimbabwe were included in the draw despite being temporarily suspended by FIFA from all international football activities. In order to avoid a potential situation where one group contained only two valid teams, the aforementioned sides could thus not be drawn in the same group.^[6] On 23 May 2022, CAF announced that both teams had been disqualified from the qualifiers as a result of their suspensions not being lifted by FIFA.^[8] Thus, their groups were composed of only three teams, with the group winners and runners-up qualifying to the finals.

The draw ceremony was conducted by the CAF Director of Competitions Samson Adamu, with assistance by former South Africa defender Lucas Radebe and former Ivory Coast striker Salomon Kalou.^[9]

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers were applied in the following order (Regulations Article 14):

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above was reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Drawing of lots

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Nigeria	6	5	0	1	22	4	+18	15	Final tournament		—	0–1	2–1	6–0
2	Guinea-Bissau	6	4	1	1	11	5	+6	13			0–1	—	2–1	5–1
3	Sierra Leone	6	1	2	3	10	11	−1	5			2–3	2–2	—	2–2
4	São Tomé and Príncipe	6	0	1	5	3	26	−23	1			0–10	0–1	0–2	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Burkina Faso	6	3	2	1	8	5	+3	11	Final tournament		—	2–0	1–0	0–0
2	Cape Verde	6	3	1	2	8	6	+2	10			3–1	—	2–0	0–0
3	Togo	6	2	2	2	8	8	0	8			1–1	3–2	—	2–2
4	Eswatini	6	0	3	3	3	8	−5	3			1–3	0–1	0–2	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cameroon	4	2	1	1	6	3	+3	7	Final tournament		—	1–1	3–0	Canc.
2	Namibia	4	1	2	1	6	6	0	5			2–1	—	1–1	Canc.
3	Burundi	4	1	1	2	4	7	−3	4			0–1	3–2	—	Canc.
4	Kenya	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Egypt	6	5	0	1	10	3	+7	15	Final tournament		—	1–0	2–0	1–0
2	Guinea	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10			1–2	—	1–0	2–0
3	Malawi	6	1	2	3	4	10	−6	5			0–4	2–2	—	2–1
4	Ethiopia	6	1	1	4	5	8	−3	4			2–0	2–3	0–0	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ghana	6	3	3	0	8	3	+5	12	Final tournament		—	1–0	2–1	3–0
2	Angola	6	2	3	1	6	5	+1	9			1–1	—	2–1	0–0
3	Central African Republic	6	2	1	3	9	7	+2	7			1–1	1–2	—	2–0
4	Madagascar	6	0	3	3	1	9	−8	3			0–0	1–1	0–3	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Algeria	6	5	1	0	9	2	+7	16	Final tournament		—	0–0	2–0	2–1
2	Tanzania	6	2	2	2	3	4	−1	8			0–2	—	0–1	1–0
3	Uganda	6	2	1	3	5	6	−1	7			1–2	0–1	—	1–1
4	Niger	6	0	2	4	3	8	−5	2			0–1	1–1	0–2	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mali	6	5	0	1	15	2	+13	15	Final tournament		—	2–0	4–0	4–0
2	Gambia	6	3	1	2	7	7	0	10			1–0	—	2–2	1–0
3	Congo	6	2	1	3	5	10	−5	7			0–2	1–0	—	1–2
4	South Sudan	6	1	0	5	5	13	−8	3			1–3	2–3	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Zambia	6	4	1	1	12	6	+6	13[a]	Final tournament		—	3–0	2–1	3–1
2	Ivory Coast	6	4	1	1	9	5	+4	13[a]			3–1	—	3–1	1–0
3	Comoros	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7			1–1	0–2	—	2–0
4	Lesotho	6	0	1	5	1	9	−8	1			0–2	0–0	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	DR Congo	6	4	0	2	11	4	+7	12	Final tournament		—	3–1	0–1	2–0
2	Mauritania	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2	10			0–3[a]	—	2–1	3–0
3	Gabon	6	2	1	3	3	5	−2	7			0–2	0–0	—	1–0
4	Sudan	6	2	0	4	3	10	−7	6			2–1	0–3	1–0	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tunisia	6	4	1	1	11	1	+10	13	Final tournament		—	4–0	3–0	3–0
2	Equatorial Guinea	6	4	1	1	9	7	+2	13			1–0	—	2–0	2–0
3	Botswana	6	1	1	4	3	9	−6	4			0–0	2–3	—	1–0
4	Libya	6	1	1	4	2	8	−6	4			0–1	1–1	1–0	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	4	3	0	1	8	3	+5	9	Final tournament		—	2–1	3–0	Canc.
2	South Africa	4	2	1	1	7	6	+1	7			2–1	—	2–2	Canc.
3	Liberia	4	0	1	3	3	9	−6	1			0–2	1–2	—	Canc.
4	Zimbabwe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Senegal	6	4	2	0	12	4	+8	14	Final tournament		—	5–1	3–1	1–1
2	Mozambique	6	3	1	2	8	9	−1	10			0–1	—	3–2	1–1
3	Benin	6	1	2	3	8	9	−1	5			1–1	0–1	—	1–1
4	Rwanda	6	0	3	3	3	9	−6	3			0–1	0–2	0–3[a]	—

There were 348 goals scored in 142 matches, for an average of 2.45 goals per match.

10 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in Africa Cup of Nations1
Ivory Coast	Hosts / Group H runners-up	30 January 2019	24 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Morocco	Group K winners	24 March 2023	18 (1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Algeria	Group F winners	27 March 2023	19 (1968, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
South Africa	Group K runners-up	28 March 2023	10 (1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2019)
Senegal	Group L winners	28 March 2023	16 (1965, 1968, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Burkina Faso	Group B winners	28 March 2023	12 (1978, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2021)
Tunisia	Group J winners	28 March 2023	20 (1962, 1963, 1965, 1978, 1982, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Egypt	Group D winners	14 June 2023	25 (1957, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Zambia	Group H winners	17 June 2023	17 (1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015)
Equatorial Guinea	Group J runners-up	17 June 2023	3 (2012, 2015, 2021)
Nigeria	Group A winners	18 June 2023	19 (1963, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2021)
Guinea-Bissau	Group A runners-up	18 June 2023	3 (2017, 2019, 2021)
Cape Verde	Group B runners-up	18 June 2023	3 (2013, 2015, 2021)
Mali	Group G winners	18 June 2023	12 (1972, 1994, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Guinea	Group D runners-up	20 June 2023	13 (1970, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1994, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021)
Ghana	Group E winners	7 September 2023	23 (1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Angola	Group E runners-up	7 September 2023	8 (1996, 1998, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019)
Tanzania	Group F runners-up	7 September 2023	2 (1980, 2019)
Mozambique	Group L runners-up	9 September 2023	4 (1986, 1996, 1998, 2010)
DR Congo	Group I winners	9 September 2023	19 (1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)
Mauritania	Group I runners-up	9 September 2023	2 (2019, 2021)
Gambia	Group G runners-up	10 September 2023	1 (2021)
Cameroon	Group C winners	12 September 2023	20 (1970, 1972, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
Namibia	Group C runners-up	12 September 2023	3 (1998, 2008, 2019)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italics indicates hosts for that year.