CAF introduces new format for 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers

According to report monitored from Cairo September 26th 2010, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has stated that the 14 countries who qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations will face just one opponent to reach the 2013 finals in Libya. With two tournaments scheduled to be held in two successive years, CAF has finally settled on its plan to make the 2013 qualifiers workable.

This has arisen because the Africa Cup of Nations is being switched to be held in an odd year starting from 2013. The 2012 tournament will end in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in February.

This means there will be little time for countries who qualify for the 2012 competition to contest a qualifying campaign that normally lasts one year.

The preliminary phase of the qualifiers will start with the countries who fail to qualify for the tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in January 2012.

Sixteen countries that triumph in the preliminary qualifiers will be drawn against the 14 who qualify for the 2012 tournament. The winners from that round will automatically qualify for the competition and will be joined by hosts Libya. "Countries that do not qualify for the 2012 tournament will play a first round eliminatory, with direct elimination, with a view to finding 15 teams,"