𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Cote d’Ivoire’s win in 2023 was the third time they have won the tournament, having also earned the trophy in 2015 and 1992.

They beat Nigeria in the final, with the Super Eagles missing out on winning their fourth title.

The most successful side in competition history is Egypt, who had unprecedented success in winning three titles in a row in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Cameroon are the next most successful side, having won five titles including two in a row in 2000 and 2002 when led by Samuel Eto’o.

The tournament has been brought forward from its normal January slot to begin before Christmas this year, with the first match taking place on 21 December 2025 and the tournament then running until the final on 18 January 2026.

There will be four pots of six teams with one side from each pot drawn into every group. Morocco were put into pot 1 as hosts, as were reigning champions Ivory Coast, with the other 22 qualifiers then placed in pots 1-4 according to their Fifa world ranking as of 19 December 2024.

The full list of pots is as follows:

Pot 1: Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire

Pot 2: Cameroon, Mali, Tunisia, South Africa, DR Congo, Burkina Faso

Pot 3: Gabon, Angola, Zambia, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Benin

Pot 4: Mozambique, Comoros, Tanzania, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Botswana

Hosts Morocco will be drawn first from pot 1 and will be placed as the first team in Group A. The teams from pot 4 will then randomly drawn one by one and sequentially placed from Group A to Group F.

Once all the teams from pot 4 have been drawn, the teams in pot 3 will be similarly placed sequentially from Group A to Group F, then pot 2 likewise before the remaining five teams in pot 1 (with Morocco already heading Group A) will be drawn sequentially from Group B to Group F.

The top two teams in each pool, as well as the four best third-placed teams, will qualify for the round of 16 at Afcon 2025.

The draw for Afcon 2025 takes place in the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat, Morocco on 27 January at 6pm GMT (7pm local time).

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations runs from 21 December of this year until 18 January 2026 and today sees the draw to determine who plays who in the group stage.

With qualification having taken place throughout 2024, a total of 23 teams, plus hosts Morocco, have qualified to play at the 35th edition of Afcon, which will be taking place in the north African country for the first time since 1988.

Under Fae, the Elephants beat defending champions Senegal on penalties in the last 16, downed Mali after extra-time in the quarter-finals and then bested DR Congo in the semi-finals. That set up a final against Nigeria, which they won 2-1 thanks to second-half goals from Franck Kessie and Sebastian Haller to claim the Afcon crown for the first time since 2015.

Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the draw for the 2025/26 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The draw for the group stage takes place in Rabat from around 6pm GMT, and we’ll have all the latest updates here.