2016 African Nations Championship qualification

2016 African Nations Championship qualification

Tournament details
Dates	15 June – 31 October 2015
Teams	42 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	56
Goals scored	131 (2.34 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Luís (4 goals)

The 2016 African Nations Championship qualification was a men's football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2016 African Nations Championship. Only national team players who were playing in their country's own domestic league were eligible to compete in the tournament.^[1]

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Rwanda who qualified automatically as hosts.^[2]

Teams

A total of 42 CAF member national teams entered the qualifying rounds, split into zones according to their regional affiliations.^[3]

Zone	Spots	Teams entering qualification	Did not enter
Northern Zone	2 spots	Libya  Morocco  Tunisia	Algeria (disqualified)  Egypt
Zone West A	2 spots	Gambia  Guinea  Guinea-Bissau  Liberia  Mali  Mauritania  Senegal  Sierra Leone	Cape Verde
Zone West B	3 spots	Burkina Faso  Ghana  Ivory Coast  Niger  Nigeria  Togo	Benin
Central Zone	3 spots	Cameroon  Central African Republic  Chad  Congo  DR Congo  Gabon	Equatorial Guinea  São Tomé and Príncipe
Central-East Zone	2 spots +  Rwanda (hosts)	Burundi  Djibouti  Ethiopia  Kenya  Sudan  Tanzania  Uganda	Eritrea  Somalia  South Sudan
Southern Zone	3 spots	Angola  Botswana  Comoros  Lesotho  Mauritius  Mozambique  Namibia  Seychelles  South Africa  Swaziland  Zambia  Zimbabwe	Madagascar  Malawi
Total	15 spots + hosts	42 teams

Notes

• Algeria were excluded by the CAF from participating because of their withdrawal against Libya in the 2014 African Nations Championship qualification.^[4][5][6]

Format

In the Northern Zone, teams played each other on a double round-robin basis. The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:^[1]

1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
4. Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
5. If, after applying criteria 1 to 4 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 9 apply;
6. Goal difference in all games;
7. Goals scored in all games;
8. Away goals scored in all games;
9. Drawing of lots.

In all other zones, qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. If the aggregate score was tied after the second leg, the away goals rule would be applied, and if still level, the penalty shoot-out would be used to determine the winner (no extra time would be played).^[1]

The top two teams in the Northern Zone and the 13 winners of the first round in all other zones qualified for the final tournament.

Schedule

The draw was held on 5 April 2015, 16:00 UTC+2, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.^[3][7][8]

The schedule of the qualifying rounds was as follows.^[9][8]

Northern Zone[10] Matchday Date Matchdays 1–3 (Host: Morocco) 15–21 June 2015 Matchdays 4–6 (Host: Tunisia) 19–25 October 2015

All other zones Round Matchday Date Preliminary round First leg 19–21 June 2015 Second leg 3–5 July 2015 First round First leg 16–18 October 2015 Second leg 23–25 October 2015

Northern Zone

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	4	3	1	0	11	3	+8	10	2016 African Nations Championship
2	Tunisia	4	1	1	2	4	5	−1	4
3	Libya	4	1	0	3	1	8	−7	3

Note: Libya played their home matches in Morocco and Tunisia due to security concerns.

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Zone West A

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Guinea-Bissau	2–4	Mali	1–1	1–3
Mauritania	4–1	Sierra Leone	2–1	2–0
Guinea	4–2	Liberia	3–1	1–1
Senegal	4–1	Gambia	3–1	1–0

Note: Guinea and Sierra Leone played their home matches in Mali and Mauritania respectively due to the Ebola outbreak (Sierra Leone home match brought forward by a week).^[11][12]

Mali won 4–2 on aggregate.

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Mauritania won 4–1 on aggregate.

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Guinea won 4–2 on aggregate.

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Senegal won 4–1 on aggregate.

First round

Winners qualified for 2016 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mali	3–2	Mauritania	2–1	1–1
Guinea	3–3 (a)	Senegal	2–0	1–3

Note: Guinea played their home match in Mali due to the Ebola outbreak.^[13]

Mali won 3–2 on aggregate.

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3–3 on aggregate. Guinea won on away goals.

Zone West B

First round

Winners qualified for 2016 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Ghana	2–2 (a)	Ivory Coast	2–1	0–1
Nigeria	2–0	Burkina Faso	2–0	0–0
Niger	3–1	Togo	2–0	1–1

Note: Second leg of Ivory Coast v Ghana delayed by a week due to presidential elections.^[14]

2–2 on aggregate. Ivory Coast won on away goals.

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Nigeria won 2–0 on aggregate.

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Niger won 3–1 on aggregate.

Central Zone

First round

Winners qualified for 2016 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
DR Congo	w/o	Central African Republic	—	—
Cameroon	1–0	Congo	0–0	1–0
Chad	1–2	Gabon	0–2	1–0

Note: Central African Republic withdrew.^[15] Second leg of Congo v Cameroon postponed to 31 October due to civil unrest.^[16]

DR Congo won on walkover.

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Cameroon won 1–0 on aggregate.

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Gabon won 2–1 on aggregate.

Central-East Zone

•  Rwanda qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
•  Sudan received a bye to the first round.

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Tanzania	1–4	Uganda	0–3	1–1
Djibouti	1–4	Burundi	1–2	0–2
Ethiopia	2–0	Kenya	2–0	0–0

Uganda won 4–1 on aggregate.

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Burundi won 4–1 on aggregate.

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Ethiopia won 2–0 on aggregate.

First round

Winners qualified for 2016 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uganda	4–0	Sudan	2–0	2–0
Burundi	2–3	Ethiopia	2–0	0–3

Uganda won 4–0 on aggregate.

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Ethiopia won 3–2 on aggregate.

Southern Zone

Preliminary round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zimbabwe	2–0	Comoros	2–0	0–0
Lesotho	1–1 (a)	Botswana	0–0	1–1
Namibia	3–3 (5–6 p)	Zambia	2–1	1–2
Mozambique	9–1	Seychelles	5–1	4–0
South Africa	5–0	Mauritius	3–0	2–0
Swaziland	2–4	Angola	2–2	0–2

Zimbabwe won 2–0 on aggregate.

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1–1 on aggregate. Lesotho won on away goals.

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3–3 on aggregate. Zambia won on penalties.

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Mozambique won 9–1 on aggregate.

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South Africa won 5–0 on aggregate.

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Angola won 4–2 on aggregate.

First round

Winners qualified for 2016 African Nations Championship.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Zimbabwe	4–2	Lesotho	3–1	1–1
Zambia	4–1	Mozambique	3–0	1–1
South Africa	2–3	Angola	0–2	2–1

Zimbabwe won 4–2 on aggregate.

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Zambia won 4–1 on aggregate.

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Angola won 3–2 on aggregate.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[17]

Team	Zone	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
Morocco	Northern Zone	03 !22 October 2015	01 !1 (2014)
Tunisia		04 !22 October 2015	01 !1 (2011)
Mali	Zone West A	07 !24 October 2015	02 !2 (2011, 2014)
Guinea		08 !24 October 2015	00 !0 (debut)
Ivory Coast	Zone West B	15 !30 October 2015	02 !2 (2009, 2011)
Nigeria		13 !25 October 2015	01 !1 (2014)
Niger		12 !25 October 2015	01 !1 (2011)
DR Congo	Central Zone	02 !13 October 2015[15]	03 !3 (2009, 2011, 2014)
Cameroon		16 !31 October 2015	01 !1 (2011)
Gabon		06 !24 October 2015	02 !2 (2011, 2014)
Rwanda (hosts)	Central-East Zone	01 !29 January 2011[2]	01 !1 (2011)
Uganda		14 !25 October 2015	02 !2 (2011, 2014)
Ethiopia		09 !25 October 2015	01 !1 (2014)
Zimbabwe	Southern Zone	10 !25 October 2015	03 !3 (2009, 2011, 2014)
Zambia		11 !25 October 2015	01 !1 (2009)
Angola		05 !24 October 2015	01 !1 (2011)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Goalscorers

4 goals

• Luís

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

Own goal

References

External links

• Orange African Nations Championship Qualifiers, Rwanda 2016, CAFonline.com