Caf To Announce 2017 Afcon Hosts In April

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) says host nation for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will be revealed on April 8.

Algeria, Gabon, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya and Sudan are the five teams to have notified the continental football governing body of their interests.

The draw for the competition will be done on April 8 in Cairo, Egypt. The qualifying tournament, which has been scheduled to involve the host for the first time, will begin in June. However, the host nation’s participation in qualifiers will be considered as friendlies and will not be computed for points.

A total of 52 teams are expected to enter for the qualifiers and will be divided into 13 groups with the winners qualifying for the final tournament as well as the two best runners-ups.

Only one team will emerge from the group that features the host nation.

Caf has also announced that the 2018 World Cup qualifiers will begin in October.

There will be three preliminary rounds to bring the teams to 20 teams, who then will be divided into five groups of four teams each.

The winners of these five groups will qualify for the 2018 World Cup billed for Russia.