The CAF Executive Committee convened on Friday in Marrakech, on the eve of the 35th Ordinary CAF General Assembly has pegged the Nations Cup draw for early next year. The draw for the qualifying stages of the Orange AFCON 2015 will take place either in January or in the beginning of February 2014 in South Africa in line with the 3rd African Nations Championship. The following format was agreed upon. A preliminary round composed of 10 teams who will each go head-to-head against one another in 2-leg matches. The 5 qualifying teams will then join the other 43 teams to form 12 groups of 4 teams. The winner from each group will qualify for a place in the final tournament in Morocco along with the 3 best second placed teams.
For the preliminary round, the CAF will make use of the FIFA rankings. As for the group stages, the CAF rankings shall be used as reference.
President of the Confederation of Africa Football Issa Hayatou also at the occasion spoke on the verdict reached on March 5 2013 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne regarding the case raised by Mr Jacques Anouma against CAF.
“The conduct of the Executive Committee along with the members of national associations during this case was exemplary”, he stated.
The Presidents of the Federations approved an amendment preventing a few of them from participating in the race for the CAF presidency; which now permits only to those who have held positions of responsibility within the institution to run for presidency. The principle of sovereignty of the General Assembly was recognised by the TAS”.
Amongst the issues raised, was that of the next CAF General Assembly in 2014 which will take place in Rio de Janeiro alongside the FIFA Congress. It was decided that the next elective GA will take place in 2015. The venue remains to be determined.
Two important decisions were reached concerning the upcoming CAN U20; the semi-finals will be held on the same day, at the same time in Algeria at Oran and Ain Temouchent stadiums respectively.
The CAN U-17 will take place in April in Morocco. The first semi-final was moved to 23rd April and the second semi-final to 24 April. Initially designated to Casablanca, the final and 3rd place matches will now both take place in Marrakech on 27 March.