Story: Sports Desk
The group stage draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers to be staged in Morocco will come off today, Thursday, July 4, 2024, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
After moving up from 14th to 12th position on the continent in last month’s FIFA rankings, the Black Stars are among the top seeded nations ahead of the draw.
Hosts Morocco, AFCON holders Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria, and Egypt are also placed in pot 1.
It means the Black Stars will not be drawn into a qualifying group with these teams.
The 48 teams will be grouped into four pots of 12, based on their FIFA Rankings, to determine the qualifiers for the 35th edition of the AFCON. The draw will produce 12 groups from A to L, each made up of four teams.
The first and second-place finishers in the 11 groups that do not include tournament hosts Morocco will qualify for the competition.
In the group involving Morocco, the host will qualify along with one other team irrespective of their position. The qualifiers for the 2025 Afcon will begin in September later this year.