CAF to announce 2014 CHAN draw

Ghana will learn their opponents for the qualifiers of the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) on Thursday, September 6, when the official draw is held in Cairo, Egypt.

A CAF statement cited by GNA Sports said the draw, scheduled for 12h00 pm GMT at the headquarters of the continent’s soccer controlling body, said the teams will be drawn in accordance with the zonal representation.

The zonal representations for the final 16 teams are North Zone (two teams), West A Zone (two teams), West B Zone (two teams), Central Zone (three teams), Central-East Zone (three teams) and South Zone (three teams).

It said 38 teams has registered to take part in the third edition of the tournament designed exclusively for footballers playing in their domestic leagues, including Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mauritania, after the lifting of their suspensions by the CAF Executive Committee.

Also for the first time, the criteria for the seeding will be the CHAN rankings, based on the performance of teams at the previous two editions in Cote d’Ivoire (2009) and Sudan (2011).

With this, Ghana is a sure bet to be one of the seeded teams after finishing as runners-up in 2009 but failing to go past the group stage at the last championship in Sudan two years ago.

Ghana also in Zone B will battle it out with Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo for the two slots allotted the zone.

Like Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire has also participated in every edition of the tournament since its inception in 2009.

The final tournament of the 2014 edition will be hosted by South Africa, the first time the event will be held in an even year.

Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah is also in charge of the Local Black Stars and will be assisted by Dauda Lutterodt.

Source: GNA