Kenya’s Harambee Stars, one of the best performers at the AFCON in this year’s edition and also among the 4 sides from East Africa in the competition, will be in Pot Four and so would be their Tanzanian counterparts.
As the heads of federations, as well as the national team coaches, converge in Cairo on April 12 for the draw, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) begins the
The draw for the group stage of #AFCON2019 will take place here… ๐ pic.twitter.com/mQ9GbvwK1s
— AFCON 2019 (@AFCON2019_en) April 5, 2019
The event will take place at a historic place facing the Sphinx and the Pyramids, near Cairo, Egypt.
All set for the draw on April 12
Anthony Baffoe, a deputy Secretary General of CAF who is in charge of competitions, will be the
The 24 teams are divided according to the latest FIFA rankings, while the results at the previous three AFCON tournaments, in 2013, 2015 and 2017, as well as the results of the past three AFCON qualification campaigns (2015, 2017 and 2019), would be taken into consideration.
75 days to go. #AFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/R5yjq12mcT
— AFCON 2019 (@AFCON2019_en) April 6, 2019
The best performers within the stated period will be placed in Pot One, while the other pots are filled in the ranking order chronologically.
This is where everything starts … This is where Africa meets!๐ซ #TotalAFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/zCrpzZ440z
— CAF (@CAF_Online) April 8, 2019
Again, with the number of teams increased from 16 to 24, there will be an increment in the number of groups from four to six. From this, the top two teams will automatically advance while the four best third teams join them to the round of 16.
From there, the winners will progress to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and eventually the grand finale.
A team will be picked from each pot and placed in a group. When a team is picked, there would be another ballot to indicate which number that team would hold in the group and whether it would play first or second.
Given their rankings as of March ending, this is how the pots would be like for the draw:
๐จ AFCON 2019 Draw | Preview
— AFCON 2019 (@AFCON2019_en) April 8, 2019
Pot 1: ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ญ๐น๐ณ๐จ๐ฎ๐จ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ณ
Pot 2: ๐ฒ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ณ
Pot 3: ๐บ๐ฌ๐ฟ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฆ๐ด๐ง๐ฎ
Pot 4: ๐ฒ๐ท๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฌ๐น๐ฟ
๐๐ผ https://t.co/LpQBCXwgqT pic.twitter.com/rIaeocOPFq
Pot 1: Egypt (hosts and will be placed in Group A), Ghana, Tunisia, Cote dโIvoire, Cameroun (defending champions), Senegal
Pot 2: Morocco, Nigeria, DR Congo, Algeria, Mali, Guinea
Pot 3: Uganda, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Angola, Burundi
Pot 4: Benin, Kenya, Mauritania, Madagascar, Namibia, Tanzania
In recent FIFA world rankings, Kenya is ranked 108 from earlier ranking which was 105 in 2018.