With two days to go before the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) conducts the official draw for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2024 finals, three legends who will take part in the ceremony have been confirmed, with one each from co-hosts Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The draw will be conducted on Wednesday, 15 January at the Kenyatta International Conventional Centre in Nairobi, Kenya at 20h00 local time (17h00 GMT / 19h00 Cairo time).

Uganda’s Hassan Wasswa, Mrisho Ngasa of Tanzania and Kenya’s McDonald Mariga will be the three legends conducting the draw of the eighth edition of the competition to take place between 1-28 February 2025.

A total of 19 nations, including hosts Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and defending champions Senegal will be engaged in the draw to officially map out the tournament’s month-long schedule.

Wasswa, Ngasa and Mariga have contributed to the ever-growing standard of African football, and have left their mark on the game in their respective countries.

Wasswa, who’s national team career spans over a decade, has been a long time servant of Ugandan football. In addition to representing the Cranes 75 times, the defensive midfielder also enjoyed a career in Turkey and Saudi Arabia before his 2021 retirement.

Tanzania’s Mrisho Ngasa is rated as one of the best players to come out of the East African nation. With a century of international appearances, Ngasa

is the second most capped Tanzanian player of all time and the nation’s leading scorer with 25 goals.

With a career dating back to 2005, his highlights include playing for three of the biggest clubs in Tanzania, Simba AC , Young Africans and Azam FC.

Beyond Tanzanian borders, the former striker plied his trade with Free State Stars in South Africa before moving to Oman, where he played for Fanja before his retirement with Tanzania’s Ndanda Sports Club.

Mariga enjoyed a glittering career that included a UEFA Champions League title with Inter Milan, as well as the Serie A trophy and two Coppa Italia wins. He also won the FIFA Club World Cup in 2010.

The former defensive midfielder was the first Kenyan to play in the UEFA Champions League, and also represented clubs in Sweden and Spain. He won 40 caps for the Kenya national team, scoring five goals.    

He is the older brother of another Kenyan legend, Victor Wanyama.

TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship 2024 Confirmed Qualified Teams: 

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda (all co-hosts), Morocco, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Sudan, Zambia, Angola and Madagascar. Two more teams will be confirmed for the finals. 

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

In the final draw of the 8th edition of the African Nations Championship holding on Wednesday at the Kenyatta International Conventional Centre in Nairobi Kenya, Nigeria’s Super Eagles B is one of the unseeded teams and will therefore be in Pot 3 which contains the least ranked teams.

There are eight teams in Pot 3 and Nigeria’s Super Eagles are one of the last four in the pot having not amassed any point in the last three editions.

Teams are seeded based on results in the last three editions in 2022, 2020 and 2018 and weighted in a ratio of 3:2:1.

Based on these, Morocco and Senegal, the last two champions with 21 points each, are the highest rated. Both are the only teams in Pot 1.

The seeding system allocated 7 points for the winner of the previous three editions. The runners-up get 5  while 3, 2 and 1 are allocated to semi-finalists, quarter-finalists and group stage teams respectively.

In the calculation, Nigeria along with Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and DR Congo has no point. They are joined in Pot 3 by Mauritania, Niger, and Congo who each has six points. Angola with 3 points are also put in Pot 3.

In Pot 2 are: Guinea (10 points), Zambia (10), Madagascar (9), Rwanda (9) and Sudan 8.

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

• *Egypt, South Africa, Malawi, The Gambia, Gabon and Comoros are likely invitees to feature in CHAN

As CAF works towards getting other teams to make up the number for the African Nations Championship holding next month, Algeria which has agreed to come in as a wild card holder has indicated it will feature its youth team.

CAF, according to sources, is also working on Egypt, South Africa, Malawi, The Gambia, Gabon and Comoros as possible wild card entrants to get a field of 24 teams.

According to an Algerian publication, Al-Khabar, the Algerian football federation agreed with CAF to now feature in CHAN. But it will feature the youth team as the timing of CHAN coincides with the domestic league.

It averred that it was for the same reason that other countries like Egypt and South Africa withdrew from participation.  The Algerian federation said that since February is not a FIFA window, it cannot legally compel clubs to release players for the African Nations Championship.

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