U23 AFCON: Dream Team XIII To Know Opponent Thursday As CAF Release Draw Procedures

U23 AFCON: Dream Team XIII To Know Opponent Thursday As CAF Release Draw Procedures

Sampson Adedeji

Nigeria's Dream Team XIII will get to know their second-round opponent in the qualifier of the 2023 U23 African Cup of Nations slated to take place in Morocco, BSNsports.com.ng has gathered.

African soccer ruling body on Sunday released the draw date and procedure of the events 

According to CAF, the draw will take place on Thursday 18th of August in Cairo, Egypt.

Thirty-nine member Associations are engaged in African qualifiers, Morocco are automatically qualified as hosts to the final tournament.

The remaining 38 teams will play the qualifiers.

Qualifiers Schedule:

First Round (Home and Away): 19 to 27 September 2022

Second Round (First Leg/Second Leg): 21 – 23 October 2022/28-30 

Third Round (First Leg/Second Leg): 20 to 28 March 2023

Procedures of the drawing of lots of the qualifiers of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations

Format:

1st round: the 20 least ranked teams will play the 1st round (knock out from home & away matches) qualifying 10 teams to the 2nd round.

 2nd round: The 10 teams qualified from the 1st round + the 18 exempted from the 1st round will play the 2nd round (knock out from home & away *matches) qualifying 14 teams to the 3rd round.

3rd round: The 14 teams qualified from the 2nd round will play the 3rd round (knock out from home & away matches) qualifying 7 teams to the final tournament in addition to the host country Morocco.

First Round (19 - 27 September 2022)

The participating teams in the 1st round (20 teams):

1 team from UNAF: Libya

3 teams from WAFU A: Gambia, Guinea Bissau & Mauritania

3 teams from WAFU B: Burkina Faso, Niger & Togo

1 team from UNIFFAC: RD Congo

5 teams from CECAFA: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan & Tanzania

7 teams from COSAFA: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique & Namibia

Teams exempted according to the ranking (18 teams):

UNAF: Algeria, Egypt & Tunisia

WAFU A: Guinea, Mali, Senegal & S. Leone

WAFU B: Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana & Nigeria

CECAFA: Sudan & Uganda

UNIFFAC: Cameroon, Congo & Gabon

COSAFA: South Africa & Zambia

The three top team in the AFCON competition in 2023 will represent Africa in the Paris 2024 Olympics.