Eleven nations in the CECAFA Zone will battle in the qualifiers for the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2025.

In the draw conducted on Wednesday by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Eritrea have been drawn to face Ethiopia in the first round, while Burundi take on Somalia.

Eritrea had taken several years without participating in CHAN qualifiers. The winner between Burundi and Somalia will take on Uganda who automatically qualified for the second round because of being highly ranked.

The winner between Ethiopia and Eritrea will take on the winner between Sudan and Tanzania in the second round, while the winner between South Sudan and Kenya will battle the winner between Djibouti and Rwanda in the final phase of the qualifiers.

The tournament will be hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania between February 1-28th, 2025.

The first leg matches of the first round will be played between October 25-27, 20224 and the return legs between November 1-3, 2024. The second round matches of the qualifiers will be played between December 20-22 for the first round, and the return legs December 25-27, 2024.

CECAFA will have four teams play in the CHAN 2024, while all the other Zones COSAFA, WAFU A, WAFU B, UNAF and UNIFFAC will have three teams each.

In the CECAFA Zone Uganda has qualified a record six times from the seven Editions of the CHAN competitions that have been held since 2009. Rwanda have qualified four times, while Sudan and Ethiopia have each qualified for CHAN three times.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced that the CECAFA Zone will have four teams participating in the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2025.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania will host the competition slated for February 1-28^th, 2025.

“The CECAFA Zone, which includes the three host countries, will receive an additional slot due to their automatic qualification as hosts. As a result, the total number of teams qualifying for the final tournament will be increased to 19 teams,” the African Football body announced on Thursday.

CAF also announced that the road to CHAN 2025 will start with the first round of qualifiers running October 25-27, 20224 and the return leg to be played November 1-3, 2024.

The second round of the qualifiers will be played between December 20-22 for the first round, and the return legs December 25-27.

Besides the CECAFA Zone that will have four teams, all the other Zones COSAFA, WAFU A, WAFU B, UNAF and UNIFFAC have been allocated three teams in the competition.

CHAN is a competition that consists of players playing in their respective national Leagues competitions.

Uganda has qualified six times from the seven Editions of the CHAN competitions that have been held since 2009. Rwanda have qualified four times, while Sudan and Ethiopia have each qualified for CHAN three times.

_{The head coach of Sudan’s national team has blamed the poor performance of the team at the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2022 on-going in Algeria to lack of good preparations.}

_{Burhan Tia has made it clear after the team bowed out in the group stage that the preparations were not the best, and they did not have all the players with the team.}

_{The Sudan started the competition with a walkover 2020 champions Morocco who did not show-up for, and lost 3-1 to Ghana in the second match. In the last Group C match played on January 23rd Sudan suffered a 3-0 defeat to Madagascar.}

_{It was also the worst performance for the Sudan national team at CHAN tournament after they finished third in their previous participation in 2011 and 2018 respectively.}

_{But Tia has now made it clear that the training preparations for his team were not the best. “I insist our training and preparations for this tournament was not the best. We were not able to engage all the players. We wanted it to be more engaging. What happened wasn’t our plan,” added the Coach.}

_{Although the Sudan team camped in Tunisia before the CHAN tournament and played build-up matches against Uganda and Cameroon, Tia says they did not have the best preparations.}

_{“Our ambitions and goals were very big. We were keen on presenting a good performance, but we failed. We must benefit from the lessons of our mistakes and better ourselves in future,” added Tia.}

_{The coach made it clear that he will make a compressive report to evaluate the team to see the week points and were improvements can be made it the future.}

_{The other teams from the CECAFA region Ethiopia and Uganda also failed to qualify out of the groups. Ethiopia started with a goalless draw against Mozambique in Group A, and later suffered 1-0 and 3-1 defeats to Algeria and Libya respectively.}

_{In Group B Uganda Cranes settled for a 0-0 draw against two time champions DR Congo, and beat Senegal 1-0 in the second match. The Cranes suffered a 3-1 defeat to Ivory Coast in the last group match.}

_{CECAFA representatives Ethiopia and Uganda have exited the on-going TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2022.}

_{Ethiopia suffered a 3-1 defeat to Libya in their last Group A match played on Saturday to finish bottom of the log.}

_{On Sunday Uganda fell by a similar 3-1 defeat to Cote d’Ivoire in a Group B match played at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Baraki, Algiers.}

_{Coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic’s team went into the match leading the group and only needed a draw to make history and qualify for their first knock out stage in the CHAN competition.}

_{Karamoko Sankara and Patrick Quotro gave Cote d’Ivoire the lead before Uganda pulled a goal back through a penalty converted by Moses Waiswa. After the interval Uganda Cranes pushed forward to try and level matters, but the Cote d’Ivoire side made it 3-1 through Kramo Aubin.}

_{The 3-0 win for Senegal against 10-man DR Congo in Annaba saw them also qualifier for the quarter final stage. Cote d’Ivoire who finished second will now face hosts Algeria in the first quarter final match on Friday.}

_{“We conceded early goal which disorganised us. But the boys tried to settle and pushed forward, but it was not our day,” said Uganda Cranes coach Sredojevic.}

_{While Ethiopia opened their campaign with a goalless draw against Mozambique, they lost the second match 1-0 to hosts Algeria and lost the third match on Saturday. Uganda who were making their sixth appearance in the competition kick started with a goalless draw against two time champions DR Congo, and stopped Senegal 1-0 in their second match.}

_{Later tonight Sudan will face Madagascar in a Group C match which will decide if they qualify for the quarter final stage. Sudan has been the most successful team in the CECAFA Zone in the history of the CHAN tournament having finished third in 2011 and 2018, the only times they participated. .}