Africa-Press – Uganda. The African Football Confederation (CAF) has conducted the draw for the group stage of the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations 2027, which will be hosted by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania from June 19 to July 17, 2027.
The draw has brought to the forefront the question of teams that have never reached the finals of the tournament. According to the qualification system, 48 teams have been divided into 12 groups, each consisting of four teams. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the finals, while an additional team will qualify from groups that include one of the host nations, alongside the host itself.
So far, ten teams from the continent have never reached the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations: Central African Republic, Eswatini, Lesotho, Chad, Seychelles, Eritrea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti, Somalia, and South Sudan.
A preliminary round preceded the group stage, involving 12 of the lowest-ranked teams in the FIFA rankings in home-and-away matches between March 25 and 31, 2026. This round resulted in the elimination of Djibouti, Chad, Seychelles, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Eswatini from the teams that had never reached the finals, along with Mauritius, while Somalia, South Sudan, Lesotho, and Eritrea advanced to the group stage, along with Burundi and Ethiopia, who had participated in previous finals.
Thus, the group stage includes five teams from the list of those that have never reached the finals, each with a specific path to achieve their first qualification in history. In Group A, Lesotho aims for one of the top two spots against Morocco, Gabon, and Niger. In Group B, South Sudan shares a group with Egypt, Angola, and Malawi. In Group C, Somalia faces Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Gambia. In Group F, the Central African Republic competes against Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mauritania for the two qualification spots.
Eritrea faces a different situation in Group D, which includes the host nation Kenya, along with South Africa and Guinea. Since the host groups only grant one additional qualification spot alongside the host, Eritrea must secure that single spot from its competitors.
The paths of these five teams in the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations have varied significantly throughout history, revealing that four of them have previously come close to qualification at least once, while the fifth remains the furthest from the finals.
The best achievement of the Central African Republic was in the qualifiers for the 2013 edition hosted by South Africa, when it eliminated the three-time continental champion Egypt, winning 3-2 in Alexandria and drawing 1-1 in Bangui, which is considered one of the biggest surprises in the history of the qualifiers. The team then reached the final round of those qualifiers before being eliminated by Burkina Faso, and it came close to qualifying again in 2021, only to be knocked out by Mauritania in the final round of the group stage.
Lesotho has never advanced beyond the group stage in its history, as its highest achievement has been finishing in lower positions in groups against stronger teams. Eritrea’s situation is the most ambiguous, having missed the qualifiers for nearly two decades after its last participation in the 2008 qualifiers, primarily due to players fleeing abroad seeking asylum because of compulsory military conscription and political restrictions. The best performance of this team was finishing second in its group in the 2008 qualifiers with nine points, a ceiling it could not build upon due to its long isolation from continental competition.
Meanwhile, South Sudan, the newest member of CAF since 2012, participated in its first group qualifiers in the 2017 edition but has not exceeded a few points in the group stage since then. It achieved its first competitive victory in history against Equatorial Guinea with a 1-0 score in 2015, followed by its notable win over Congo 3-2 in the qualifiers for the 2025 edition, yet it has remained distant from qualification spots each time.
Somalia has the weakest record among the five, having never reached the group stage of the qualifiers before this edition. Its historic victory over Zimbabwe in September 2019 marked its first win in continental qualifiers since 1984 when it defeated Kenya. Reaching the group stage this time, after eliminating Mauritius on penalties in the preliminary round, represents the highest achievement in its qualifying history.
The first and second rounds of the group stage will take place between September 21 and October 6, 2026, the third and fourth rounds between November 9 and 17, 2026, and the qualifiers will conclude with the fifth and sixth rounds between March 22 and 30, 2027.
