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Nigeria, a three-time champion and five-time runner-up, is set to learn its opponents for the 35th Africa Cup of Nations qualification race on Thursday.
The draw for the 2025 AFCON will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, as announced by Ademola Olajire, the Director of Communications at the Nigeria Football Federation.
The draw will be held at the SuperSport studio in South Africa's commercial and economic capital.
A total of 48 countries will be divided into 12 groups of four teams each. Eleven groups will produce the top two teams who will qualify directly for the finals scheduled from Dec. 21, 2025, to Jan. 18, 2026.
The 12th group, which includes host nation Morocco, will see Morocco qualifying alongside one other team, regardless of their finishing position.
The qualifying matches are scheduled to be played over the FIFA windows of September, October, and November this year.
All the teams that Nigeria is currently facing in the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying race, including Benin Republic, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, will also be part of Thursday's draw.
The 48 teams for the draw are categorized as follows:
POT 1: Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, South Africa, DR Congo, Ghana
POT 2: Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Benin Republic, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar
POT 3: Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Comoros, Togo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Central African Republic
POT 4: Niger Republic, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, The Gambia, Burundi, Liberia, Ethiopia, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, South Sudan, Chad.
