The draw for the qualifying competition for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) Algeria 2022 will hold on Thursday, 26 May 2022 in Cairo, Egypt.  

The draw will be conducted at 13h00 Cairo time (11h00 GMT) live on CAF digital pages.  Ahead of the draw, two teams, Morocco and Libya are already qualified.

This is sequel to the fact that they are the sole entries in the Northern Zone where two teams are expected to emerge along with Algeria, the host.

Algerian legend Djamal Menad, top scorer and winner of 1990 AFCON with Algeria, will be the draw assistant joined by CAF Head of Competitions Khaled Nassar. 

For the first time in the history of the competition, 18 teams will participate in the next final tournament set to take place in Algeria in January and February 2023.  

The African Nations Championship (CHAN) is the competition which brings together players who compete in their respective domestic leagues.  

The previous edition took place in January/February 2021 in Cameroon and saw Morocco being crowned as champions.

The qualifiers will be organized per zone and 18 teams will participate in the final tournament.

Below is the procedure for the draw:

Northern Zone (2 teams to qualify + HOST)

Engaged Teams: Libya & Morocco

Since there are only two teams engaged from this Zone and only two teams are qualified from this zone ((in addition to the host that is automatically qualified); hence Libya and Morocco are automatically qualified to the final tournament.

Western Zone A (3 teams to qualify)

Engaged Teams (9): All MAs engaged.

Level I – Guinea, Mali, Mauritania

Level II – Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Cap Vert, Liberia, Gambia & Sierra Leone

First Round: The six teams from Level II will play against each other. The first team drawn will play against the 2nd team drawn, the 3rd team drawn will play against the 4th team drawn and the 5th team drawn will play against the 6th team drawn. The team drawn last will play second match at home.

Second Round: Teams of level I will play against the winners of the 1st round.

Guinea will play against the winner of match 1/2 – Mali will play against the winner of match 3/4 and Mauritania will play against the winner of match 5/6

The teams of level 1 play the 2nd match at home.

Western Zone B (3 teams to qualify)

Engaged Teams (7): All MAs engaged.

Level I – Nigeria, Burkina Faso & Niger

Level II – Côte d’Ivoire & Togo

Level III – Ghana & Benin.

1st Round: The two teams from Level III will play against each other. A draw will be done to determine the order of the matches. The team drawn last will play second match at home.

2nd Round: A team will be drawn from Level I to play against a team that will be drawn from Level II. The procedure will be repeated 2 times. The last team remaining will play against the winner of the 1st round (Winner 1/2).

Level I will play the 2nd match at home.

Central Zone (3 teams to qualify)

Engaged Teams (6 teams): Sao tome are suspended & Gabon did not engage.

Level I – Cameroon,DR Congo & Congo

Level II – Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa, & Chad

First Round: A team will be drawn from Level I to play against a team that will be drawn from *Level II. *The procedure will be repeated 3 times.

The teams of level 1 play the 2nd match at home.

Central East Zone (3 teams to qualify)

Engaged Teams (9): Eritrea & Kenya did not engage.

Level I – Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan

Level II – Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia & Djibouti.

First Round: The six teams from Level II will play against each other. The 1st team drawn will play against the 2nd team drawn, the 3rd team drawn will play against the 4th team drawn and the 5th team drawn will play against the 6th team drawn. The team drawn last will play second match at home.

Second Round: Teams of level I will play against the winners of the 1st round.

Rwanda will play against the winner of match 1/2 – Uganda will play against the winner of match 3/4 and Sudan will play against the winner of match 5/6

The teams of level 1 play the 2nd match at home.

The aggregate winners are qualified to the Final Tournament.

Southern Zone (3 teams to qualify)

Engaged Teams (13): Lesotho did not engage

Level I – Zambia, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Madagascar & Eswatini

Level II –South Africa, Mozambique, Comoros, Mauritius & Botswana

Level III –Malawi & Seychelles.

1st Round: The teams from Level III will play against each other. A draw will be done to determine the order of the matches. The team drawn last will play second match at home.

2nd Round: A team will be drawn from Level I to play against a team that will be drawn from Level II. The procedure will be repeated 5 times. The last team remaining will play against the winner of the 1st round (Winner 1/2).

Level I will play second match at home.

3rd Round: The winner of matches 3/4 will play against the winner of matches 5/6 and the winner of 7/8 will play against 9/10 and the winner of 11/12 will play against 13/14

The winner of matches 15/16, 17/18 and 19/20 are qualified to the Final Tournament

In case the suspension of Zimbabwe FA is not lifted 2 weeks before their first match, they will be considered loser and eliminated from the competition.