2018 African Nations Championship qualification

Updated on Oct 20, 2023

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Dates 20 April – 20 August 2017 Teams 48 (from 1 confederation)

The 2018 African Nations Championship qualification will be a men's football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 African Nations Championship. Only national team players who were playing in their country's own domestic league will be eligible to compete in the tournament.

A total of 16 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament, including Kenya who qualified automatically as hosts.

Teams

A total of 48 CAF member national teams will enter the qualifying rounds, split into zones according to their regional affiliations.

Notes

Central African Republic were excluded by the CAF from participating because of their withdrawal against DR Congo in the 2016 African Nations Championship qualification.

Chad withdrawn on 27 March 2016, but however, on 24 May 2016, Chad announced that they won't be able to qualify for CHAN 2018, and São Tomé and Príncipe officially entered the qualification, along with Equatorial Guinea.

Egypt are expected to withdraw from the CHAN 2018, but however, on 4 June 2016, it was announced that Egypt will participate in the CHAN 2018 qualification.

Schedule

The draw was held on 3 February 2017 at Libreville, Gabon.

The schedule of the qualifying rounds is as follows.

Format

Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).