AFCON 2027 qualifiers
48 teams, twelve groups, 144 matches across three international windows between September 2026 and March 2027.
The three windows
| Match window | Dates | Matchday |
|---|---|---|
| First window | September 21 – October 6, 2026 | Matchday 1, 2 |
| Second window | November 9 – November 17, 2026 | Matchday 3, 4 |
| Third window | March 22 – March 30, 2027 | Matchday 5, 6 |
Where the real contests are
A group is worth following when more than one side can realistically get out of it. The contenders column counts teams inside the world top 70. Where that number is one, the group has a favourite and a gap; where it is two, there is a fight.
Titles are shown separately and deliberately not used to rank the groups. Two of the sides with a title to their name are now ranked outside the world top 110, having won in 1970 and 1962. History is worth knowing; it is not a guide to who wins in 2026.
| Group | Teams | Contenders | Gap at the top | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group C Toughest | Ivory Coast, Ghana, Gambia, Somalia | 2 | 34 | 7 |
| Group K | Mali, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Liberia | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| Group B | Egypt, Angola, Malawi, South Sudan | 1 | 63 | 7 |
| Group G | Cameroon, Comoros, Namibia, Congo | 1 | 65 | 6 |
| Group L | Nigeria, Madagascar, Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau | 1 | 78 | 3 |
| Group I | Algeria, Zambia, Togo, Burundi | 1 | 61 | 3 |
| Group E | DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe | 1 | 64 | 2 |
| Group A | Morocco, Gabon, Niger, Lesotho | 1 | 78 | 2 |
| Group D | South Africa, Guinea, Kenya, Eritrea | 1 | 27 | 1 |
| Group H | Tunisia, Uganda, Libya, Botswana | 1 | 32 | 1 |
| Group J | Senegal, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia | 1 | 85 | 3 |
| Group F | Burkina Faso, Benin, Mauritania, Central African Republic | 1 | 31 | 0 |
Contenders are sides ranked in the world top 70. Gap at the top is the difference in FIFA places between the best and second-best side in the group. FIFA ranking as of July 20, 2026.