CAF Set To Increase CHAN 2023 From 16 To 18 Teams, Introduces New Format

According to the Algeria Football Federation (FAF), The CHAN 2023 African Nations Championship scheduled in Algeria from January 8 to 31 will be increased from 16 teams to 18 teams, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

The announcement was made by the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) on Monday evening on its Facebook page.

The decision to increase the participating teams was taken at the end of a meeting held Monday by videoconference, which brought together the president of the FAF Amara Charaf-Eddine, the vice-president of the African Confederation (CAF) Seydou Mbombo Njoya, also chairman of the CHAN commission, CAF general secretary Véron Mosengo-Omba, and the chairman of the Organizing Committee (COCHAN), Rachid Oukali.

The participants in this meeting agreed to modify article 70 relating to the number of teams participating in this event. The 18 countries will be divided into 5 groups.

According to the new format of five groups, three groups will be made up of four nations, while the last two have three teams each, specifies the FAF in a press release.

Under the new competition system, the first two of the first three groups will qualify for the quarter-finals, while only the first of the last two three-nation groups will validate their ticket to the next round.

No information, however, regarding the zones that will benefit from an increase in their quota of teams for the final phase. To date, 47 nations are in the running for a place in the final phase of CHAN 2022.

The draw for the CHAN-2023 qualifiers, initially scheduled for April 29, has been postponed to a later date.

CHAN is a competition reserved exclusively for players playing in the national championships and will be held from January 8 to 31 in Algeria, after being postponed last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Awarded to Algeria in September 2018, the 7th edition of CHAN will be played in four stadiums: 5-July-1962 in Algiers, the Olympic stadium in Oran, 19-May-1956 in Annaba and Chahid- Hamlaoui of Constantine.