YAMOUSSOUKRO, Côte d'Ivoire
Hosts Ivory Coast were joined in Group A by Nigeria in the draw for the Africa Cup of Nations in Abidjan on Thursday.
Fast-improving Equatorial
Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, who have qualified for a fourth straight edition,
complete the mini-league.
Other heavyweight pairings
included defending champions Senegal with five-time winners Cameroon, while
Africa's first World Cup semifinalists Morocco face the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Ivory Coast, seeking a third
Cup of Nations title, will meet Guinea-Bissau in the opening match on 13
January in Abidjan, the economic hub.
The Ivorian clash with
three-time champions Nigeria will attract most attention among the six Group A
fixtures.
Nigeria were last crowned Cup
of Nations winners in 2013 in South Africa and the Ivory Coast succeeded them
two years later in Equatorial Guinea.
Morocco were drawn in Group F
with DR Congo, Zambia and Tanzania.
The Atlas Lions have won the
premier African football competition only once, in 1976.
Their best performance since
then was finishing runners-up to 2004 hosts Tunisia.
Defending champions Senegal
are in Group C with five-time winners Cameroon, Guinea and the Gambia.
South Africa will face
Tunisia, Mali and Namibia in Group E while Ghana take on Egypt, Cape Verde and
Mozambique in Group B.
Group D, comprising Algeria,
Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Angola, completes the line-up for a tournament
that will reach a climax with the final on 11 February.
Senegalese-American singer
Akon hosted the draw, assisted by current and former African stars Sadio Mane,
Achraf Hakimi, Didier Drogba and Mikel John Obi.
Ivory Coast are hosting the
premier African sport event for a second time, and hoping for much better
results than in 1984.
Then, the Elephants began with
a convincing victory over Togo, but losses to Egypt and eventual champions
Cameroon meant elimination after the first round.
It was the only time in nine
hostings of the Cup of Nations in west Africa that the home country failed to
reach the knockout stage.
Just eight nations featured in
that edition -- a third of the number who will arrive in the west African
country for the next edition.
The tournament should have
taken place already as it was originally scheduled for June and July this year.
But had it gone ahead, matches
would have been staged during the rainy season and CAF president Patrice
Motsepe said "it was too great a risk to play matches in potential
downpours".
He admitted moving the
two-yearly tournament to January and February was "not ideal as it clashes
with the European club season".
This means stars like Mohamed
Salah of Liverpool and Victor Osimhen of Napoli could be absent from their
clubs for five weeks, depending on how record seven-time champions Egypt and
Nigeria fare.
Ivory Coast will stage the Cup
of Nations at six stadiums -- two in Abidjan and one each in Bouake,
administrative capital Yamoussoukro, Korhogo and San Pedro.
Friendly fixtures meant many
coaches, including Aliou Cisse of Senegal and Rigobert Song of Cameroon, were
unable to attend the draw.
FULL DRAW:
Group A:
Ivory Coast, G. Bissau, Eq. Guinea, Nigeria
Group B:
Mozambique, Cape Verde, Ghana, Egypt
Group C:
Gambia, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal
Group D:
Angola, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Algeria
Group E:
Namibia, South Africa, Mali, Tunisia
Group F:
Tanzania, Zambia, DR Congo, Morocco
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