mtnfootball.com
The draw for the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) to be staged in South Africa will be held in Cairo on Wednesday.
The tournament, to be hosted in three cities, Cape Town, Polokwane and Bloemfontein between January 11 and February 1, is the third edition of an event that was first played in 2009.
The 16 participating teams, including a Bafana Bafana squad made up of local PSL talent, will be split into four groups containing four sides each, with the top two in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals.
As of yesterday, CAF had still not announced the confirmed format for the draw, but Times Media understands there will be eight seeded teams and eight unseeded.
This is likely to be based on the FIFA Rankings that were released yesterday, though South Africa will certainly be one of the seeded sides and in Group A.
The field includes some of the traditional powerhouses of the continent – Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco are all there, but will also see tiny Mauritania compete in a continental final for the first time in their history.
The Islamic west African state has a population of just over 3-million, but ousted both Liberia and more impressively Senegal on their way to qualifying for the finals. They also recently beat Canada in a friendly, a sign their football is on the up.
As the matches are viewed as official FIFA fixtures, that has seen the rocket up the World Rankings from last place to number 40 in Africa.
Aside from hosts South Africa, others in the draw are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Libya, Mali, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
CHAN is only open to players who ply their trade in their own domestic leagues, meaning South Africa will field a team made up solely of players from the Premier Soccer League.
DR Congo won the first edition of the competition played in Cote d’Ivoire in 2009, with Tunisia victorious two years ago in Sudan.
