2027 AFRICA CUP QUALIFIERS 

The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches are being organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the 36th edition of the international men's football championship of Africa.

The qualification began with the preliminary round, which ran from 25 to 31 March 2026, and will conclude with the group stage, which is being played in September, October and November 2026, and March 2027 for the final rounds.

A total of 24 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including automatically qualified co-hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

ENTRANTS

All 54 CAF member associations entered the competition. The seeding was based on the FIFA World Ranking from 19 November 2025.

A total of 48 teams, including the three co-hosts, are competing in the qualifying group stage. Teams ranked 1st to 42nd received a bye to that stage, while the teams ranked 43rd to 54th participated in the preliminary round.

Eritrea and Seychelles made their returns to the qualifying stage after being excluded in the previous edition, despite the former being unranked by FIFA at the time of seeding due to a lack of recent matches.