2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualification
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 25 March 2026 – 16 November 2026 |
| Teams | 54 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 12 |
| Goals scored | 25 (2.08 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |  Bienvenue Kanakimana Ali Sulieman (3 goals each) |
← 2025 2028 → | |
| Qualification for championships (CAF) |
|---|
Qualification for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations began on 25 March 2026. A total of 28 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically qualified hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
All CAF member associations are eligible to enter the competition. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 19 November 2025.
The qualifiers group stage draw, originally scheduled for 19 December 2025, was postponed to 13 January 2026.
Teams ranked 1st to 42nd received a bye to the qualifying group stage, while the teams ranked 43rd to 54th have to participate in the preliminary round.
| Bye to group stage | Participating in preliminary round |
|---|---|
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Schedule
The schedule of the qualifying tournament is as follows.
| Round | Matchday | Dates | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary round | First leg | 25–27 March 2026 | Team 1 vs. Team 2 |
| Second leg | 29–31 March 2026 | Team 2 vs. Team 1 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 21 September – 6 October 2026 | Team 1 vs. Team 2, Team 3 vs. Team 4 |
| Matchday 2 | Team 2 vs. Team 3, Team 4 vs. Team 1 | ||
| Matchday 3 | Team 1 vs. Team 3, Team 2 vs. Team 4 | ||
| Matchday 4 | Team 3 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 2 | ||
| Matchday 5 | 9–17 November 2026 | Team 2 vs. Team 1, Team 4 vs. Team 3 | |
| Matchday 6 | Team 3 vs. Team 2, Team 1 vs. Team 4 |
Preliminary round
The twelve teams were split into six ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format.[3][4]
| Team 1 | Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Djibouti  | 1–4 |  South Sudan | 0–4 | 1–0 |
Chad  | 0–8 | Burundi | 0–4 | 0–4 |
Somalia  | 0–0 (4–2 p) |  Mauritius | 0–0 | 0–0 |
Seychelles  | 1–2 |  Lesotho | 0–0 | 1–2 |
| Eritrea | 4–1 |  Eswatini | 2–0 | 2–1 |
São Tomé and Príncipe  | 0–4 |  Ethiopia | 0–3 | 0–1 |
