Malawi National Football Team, the Flames, are in pot three of the 2025 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers draw slated for today in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Confederations of African Football (Caf) released draw procedures for the qualifiers Wednesday.
According to Caf, 48 teams will be grouped into four pots of 12 as per the latest Fifa rankings released on June 20 2024.
Top-ranked teams will be in pot one whereas lowly ranked teams have been put in pot four.
The Flames are in pot three alongside Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Togo, Comoros, Sudan, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic.
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This means the Flames will not be drawn against teams in pot three.
However, Malawi will likely be drawn against two of the strongest teams from pot one and two.
As per draw procedures, pot one comprises hosts Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ghana.
Pot two has Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Benin, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique and Madagascar.
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The Flames will also be drawn against one of the lowly ranked teams from pot four, namely Chad, South Sudan, eSwatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Ethiopia, Liberia, Burundi, The Gambia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Niger.
Football Association of Malawi Competitions and Communications Director Gomezgani Zakazaka said they are looking forward to the draw.
“We are looking forward to the draw as we are set for another campaign,” he said.
The qualifiers are expected to start in September this year.
Two teams from each group will qualify for the Afcon finals to be staged in Morocco next year.
On his part, sports analyst Sherry Msuku said the Flames should prepare well for the qualifiers.
“Qualification will depend on our preparations. But let us hope that the Flames will get a fair draw,” he said.
The Flames did not qualify for the 2023 edition held in Ivory Coast.
Malawi qualified for the 2021 edition and reached the round-of-16 stage in Cameroon.
