section_path: Qualification
section_name: Qualification
paragraph_text: Qualification
  
  The qualifiers were held between 20 March and 19 November 2024, starting with the preliminary round (20–26 March 2024) and then the group stage (2 September–19 November 2024). The preliminary round draw was held on 20 February 2024, 14:00 CAT (UTC+2) at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The eight involved national teams were seeded into two pots of four based on the FIFA World Rankings from 15 February 2024, Seychelles and Eritrea were excluded from the qualifiers. The eight teams were split into four ties which were played in home-and-away two-legged format. The four winners: Chad, Eswatini, Liberia and South Sudan advanced to the group stage to join the 44 teams which entered directly. The group stage draw took place on 4 July 2024, 14:30 CAT (UTC+2) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The 48 national teams involved were divided into twelve groups of four each, which consisted of the 44 teams that entered directly, in addition to the four winners of the preliminary round, and were seeded into four pots of twelve each based on the June 2024 FIFA World Rankings.