Five-time African football championships, Cameroon will make her 22nd appearance at the biggest African football jamboree in Morocco at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations alongside 23 other qualified nations as from December 21, 2025 to January 18, 2026.
Ahead of the draw ceremony to take place on Monday, January 27, 2025 at the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat at 6pm, Cameroon is appears in Pot 2 hosting Mali, Tunisia, South Africa, Burkina Faso and the DRC
Cameroon ranked 49 according to FIFA’s recent rankings is paired alongside Mali(51), Tunisia (52), South Africa (57), DRC (61) and Burkina Faso (66). The Eagles of Mali are making their 14th appearance at the AFCON and are yet to lift the trophy meanwhile the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia are in their 23th participation with one trophy to their name at the AFCON
Another Pot 2 group member, the Bafana Bafana of South Africa are in their twelve appearances and were once a champions. The Leopards of the DR Congo are two time winners of the AFCON and will be in Morocco to mark their 21 participations, and the Stallions of Burkina Faso were runners up in 2013 and will be participating for 20 times
Seeding and Draw Procedure
The twenty-four qualified teams will be placed in four pots of six teams based on the FIFA Rankings.The seeding will be confirmed ahead of the ceremony.
During the draw, the teams will be placed into six pools each containing four sides. The top two teams in each group and the four best third-placed sides advance to the round of 16.
The Pots;
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 Republic
Pot 4: Mozambique, Comoros, Tanzania, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Botswana
Morocco will play host to Africa again since hosting the 1988 tournament that was won by Cameroon. The North African country was handed the hosting right for the 2015 finals, but ducked at the eleventh hour in the midst of the ebola scare across some nations in the continent.
Since then, the country has hosted a plethora of football championships, including the African Nations Championship in 2018 (which she won), the Women Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 (in which she finished as runner-up) and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2023. Morocco will also co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup finals alongside neighbours Spain and Portugal.
Botswana and Comoros are taking part in their second respective AFCON tournament while Egypt counts 27 times, highest ever at the continental tournament.
Benly Anchunda
@anchunda_benly
