Afcon 2025 qualifying draw set for 4 July

Hosts Ivory Coast won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in February, after the tournament was moved to early 2024 to avoid the rainy season in West Africa

The qualifying draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) will take place in Johannesburg on Thursday, 4 July.

The 48 competing teams will be split into 12 groups of four, with the top two in each group reaching the finals in Morocco.

The tournament hosts will be included in the draw but, given the Atlas Lions are already assured of qualification, only one team in their group will book a ticket to North Africa.

The dates for the 2025 Afcon finals are yet to be announced by the Confederation of African Football (Caf).

Caf had previously committed to stage its flagship men's tournament at the end of the European club season, in a June-July slot, but those dates next year will clash with Fifa's inaugural 32-team Club World Cup.

Earlier this month Caf secretary general Veron Mosengo-Omba told BBC Sport Africa that scheduling is "a nightmare" and admitted that the 2025 finals could potentially be played in early 2026.

"We need to make sure that the dates that we'll be choosing will be in the interests of the players,” said the Swiss-Congolese, highlighting issues around the workload of the continent’s elite players.

Qualifiers for the 2025 Afcon will take place in September, October and November this year.

Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan all progressed through a preliminary round to join the continent's 44 highest-ranked nations in the group draw.