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2024 CHAN: Defending champions Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria learn of draw

 The draw for the finals of the CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) tourna­ment was conduct­ed on Wednesday in Nairobi, with Kenya being pooled in a difficult group.

The East African nation were drawn in Group A alongside two-time winners, Morocco and DR Congo, as well as Angola and Zambia, in a pool packed with past champions and quality teams. The event was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) with the 19 teams drawn into four groups.

Another host nation, Tanzania, were drawn in Group B and will take on Madagascar, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Central African Republic while c0-host Uganda were pooled in Group C and will come up against Niger, Guinea, Qualifier 1 and Qualifier 2.

Defending champions, Senegal, found themselves in Group D, which is a four-team pool, and will face Congo, Sudan and Nigeria.

According to the Confedera­tion of African Football (CAF), two teams will have to book their place and join the groups before the tournament, which was earlier scheduled for February 1st to 28th, but was pushed to August, 2025.

A statement from CAF con­firmed: “Two teams must still book their places at the finals, with Al­geria, Comoros, Gambia, Malawi, Egypt, South Africa and Gabon to take part in a qualification cam­paign to fill the slots in the draw for Qualifier 1 and Qualifier 2.”

The draw was conducted with the assistance of three East African football legends, Uganda’s Hassan Wasswa, Mrisho Ngasa of Tanza­nia and Kenya’s McDonald Mariga. This will be the second time the tournament will be held in East Africa, the first being in 2016 when it was hosted in Rwanda.

Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda were named as co-hosts of the 2024 edition on December 17, 2023 as a dress rehearsal of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AF­CON).

The tournament features na­tional teams consisting of players currently playing in their respective local leagues. The DR Congo and Morocco are the most successful teams in this tournament with two titles each, followed by Tunisia, Libya and incumbent champions Senegal with one title each.

The tournament began life in 2009 with eight teams, which was doubled for the second edition up until the 6th and is currently contested by 19 teams since the 2022 edition.

The conception of this tourna­ment came on September 11, 2007, during a CAF Executive Commit­tee in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the aim being to give home­grown players opportunities to rep­resent their nations and promote their home leagues globally.

The tournament was approved and confirmed in January 2008 before that year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana. Following its conclusion of that tournament in February, CAF voted unanimously for Ivory Coast against firm-favor­ite countries like Sudan and Egypt to host the inaugural edition, after which the tournament dates and schedules were confirmed.

The seventh edition was held in Algeria where Senegal won their first title after defeating Algeria in the final 5-4 on penalties after the match ended 0–0. Senegal became the first team to win the Africa Cup of Nations and the African Nations Championship back-to-back. –Flashscore

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