KAMPALA: If you want to play in this year’s Africa Cup of Nations 2023 group stage qualifiers, you’ll have to make a pick on April 19, 2022.
The Uganda Cranes, who missed out on the AFCON 2021, will know their opponents when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) holds the draw.
The 48 teams will be drawn into twelve groups of four teams each (from Group A to Group L). Groups will consist of the 42 teams that entered directly, in addition to the six winners of the preliminary round. The best two teams in each group will qualify for the AFCON 2023 to take place in Cote d’Ivoire.
The other teams from the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) that will be drawn include Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Sudan, and Ethiopia. It is still not certain if Kenya, which is still suspended by the world governing body, will be considered.
According to CAF, the first two group matches will be played between May and June, while two more matches will be played in September and the next two in March 2023.
Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic, the Uganda Cranes’ head coach, told URN that they will work hard to ensure that the national team returns to AFCON. “It is hard work that will get us back to AFCON,” says Sredojevic.
The Uganda Cranes played in the 2017 AFCON in Gabon and the 2019 AFCON in Egypt. Ethiopia and Sudan qualified for the CECAFA region and went to the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon earlier this year. They were representing the region.
Senegal are the reigning AFCON champions after they defeated Egypt in the final.