Africa Cup of Nations 2012 Draw and CHAN 2011

February 4th, 2010 | by: sscouser | Comments(5)

On January 30, 2010 CAF announced that the draw for the qualifying rounds for the 28th Africa Cup of Nations (Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012) will take place on 20 February 2010 in Lubumbashi, DR Congo.

The draw, which will spell the composition of groups for the qualifiers, will take place during the Africa Super Cup finals match (February 21) between TP Mazembe of DR Congo and Stade Malien of Bamako. Since Togo are appealing the ban, CAF may as well put the draw on hold. I can smell a court injuction.

Meanwhile, CHAN Sudan 2011 is all set. The tournament, inaugurated in 2009 when the finals were held in Cote d’Ivoire, is for African National Teams made up of players in their respective domestic leagues only. DR Congo Leopards made history by becoming the first team to win the African Nations Championship (CHAN) after beating Ghana 2-0 in March 2009 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. It was a perfect revenge for DR Congo. During the group phase Ghana beat DR Congo 3-0.

First Round of CHAN 2011 (starting next month):

The inaugural edition involved eight teams but in Sudan there will be sixteen teams. Each CAF (African Football Confederation) zone will produce the following # of teams to join the hosts (Sudan):

Zone North = 2
Zone West = 2
Zone West B = 3
Central Zone = 3
Central East Zone = 3 (including Sudan)
Southern Zone = 3

Though the games are not on FIFA calendar they will affect a country’s FIFA rankings. They will be counted as friendly matches. In December 2009 the Flames (Malawi National Team) were on position # 99 on FIFA rankings. This month the Flames are on position # 82. How Come?:

This month’s FIFA Coca Cola World Ranking took into account the following matches (matches played after last publication: December 16, 2010)

Malawi 3 Algeria 0 (It’s not a typo)