Caf unveils Afcon 2013 draw procedures and seeded teams

Caf has published the procedure for the drawing of lots for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final tournament beginning next January.

With the exception of hosts South Africa and defending champions Zambia, the 14 qualified teams will be ranked based on their performances in the last three editions.

A system of points has been adopted to classify the teams according to their performances in 2008, 2010 and 2012 editions, with the winner in any of those competitions receiving 7 points, while runners-up, 5, semi-finalist, 3, quarterfinalist, 2, teams eliminated in the group stage getting 1 point.

Points obtained by each of the 14 teams in 2012 edition will be multiplied by 3, by 2 in the 2010 edition and by 1 in the 2008 edition.

In conformity with the regulations of the competition, host nation South Africa will be the top seeded team of group A and title holder Zambia will be the top seeded team of group C. Both will bear letters A1 and C1 on board respectively.

Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire obtained 22 points each after multiplications and are the best ranked teams amongst the remaining 14. Both have been placed in Pot 1 and will be the top seeded teams of groups B and D respectively.

The remaining twelve teams will be categorised into three Pots (Pot 2, 3 and 4) based on their total points from results in the last three editions.

The Stage 1 of the Draw will be to do an integral draw to determine which of Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire will be awarded the letter B1 and D1.

The Stage 2 will be to proceed to the repartition of the 4 teams of Pot 4 (DR Congo, Togo, Cape Verde and Ethiopia) in the four groups.

In stage 2, a designated representative will draw from the first jar that contains the 4 groups (A,B,C,D) the letter that will determine the group where the next drawn team will play. The first team to be drawn shall belong in that group in position 4 (i.e. A4, B4, C4 or D4).

The procedure will be repeated for the three other teams of Pot 4.

Stage 3 of the Draw will involve the 4 teams in Pot 3 (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Morocco andNiger). The first team to be drawn shall belong in that group in position 3 (i.e. A3, B3, C3 or D3).

Stage 4 of the Draw will concern the 4 teams in Pot 2 (Mali, Tunisia, Angola and Nigeria), following the same procedure as described above.

By the end of the four stages the sixteen qualified countries will be distributed within the four groups.

The official draw will be held on October 24 in Durban, South Africa.