AFCON 2025: Super Eagles to know opponents Thursday

Nigeria, three-time winners and five-time runners-up, should find out on Thursday who their opponents will be in the 35th Africa Cup of Nations qualification race.

The 2025 AFCON draw is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ademola Olajire, the Nigeria Football Federation's director of communications, revealed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

The draw will take place inside the SuperSport studio in the commercial and economic hub of South Africa.

Twelve groups of four teams each will be used to divide the 48 participating countries; the top two teams in eleven of the groups will advance straight to the finals, which are set for December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026.

Morocco, the host country, will see Morocco qualify in the 12th group (no matter the position in which they finish) alongside one other team.
This year's FIFA windows in September, October, and November will see the qualifying matches take place.

Benin Republic, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe—all of Nigeria's rivals in the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying race—are represented in Thursday's draw.

The 48 teams in the draw are listed below:

POT 1: Algeria, Cameroon, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, DR Congo, and South Africa

POT 2: Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Cape Verde, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar

POT 3: Central African Republic, Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Libya, Comoros, Togo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Malawi,

POT 4 consists of the following countries: Ethiopia, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, South Sudan, Chad, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, The Gambia, Burundi, Liberia, and Niger Republic.