Afcon 2015 qualifiers:
May 16th – 18th 2014:
Madagascar Vs Uganda – 1st Leg
Return leg: 30th May – 1st June 2014
Uganda Cranes has been drawn to play Madagascar in the opening qualifier of the 2015 African Nations Cup finals that will be held in Morocco.
The draw was held at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The first leg will be held between any of the dates 16th -18th 2014.
FUFA organized a special gala at Lugogo Stadium in the build up to the draws. Various people including FUFA Executive members, local coaches, ex-internationals, fans and well wishers closely followed the draws.
“It will be a competitive game. It will not be the Madagascar that plays in the COSAFA cup. I expect them to strengthen their team with players from the French league” said Micho, Uganda Cranes head coach, who showed up at Lugogo shortly after the draw.
Incase Uganda passes the Madagascar test, they are set to face the winner between Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea.
The winner of that progresses to the group stage, where they will play against Ghana, Togo and Guinea in group E.
How draw was conducted:
Under the draw procedure, 28 teams were divided into 4 groups, each pot containing 7 teams based on the CAF classification.
Pot 1: Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia
Pot 2: Algeria, Angola, Cap Verde, Togo, Egypt, South Africa, Cameroun
Pot 3: RD Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Senegal, Sudan
Pot 4: The Seven yet to be decided by the preliminary round matches
Summary to decide Pot 4:
A total of 28 teams were divided into two pots each containing 14 teams based on CAF classification.
The 14 teams of the Level 1 namely Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda, Mozambique, Benin, Sierra Leone, Congo, Central Africa Republic, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Liberia and Gambia will be in Pot A.
The 14 teams of Level 2 namely Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Burundi, Lesotho, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Chad, Sao Tome, Seychelles, Comoros, Swaziland, South Sudan and Mauritania were in Pot B.
Pot C was empty.
Step 1: A draw made to pick one team from Pot A
Step 2: A draw made to pick one team from Pot B, the team drawn from Pot A were to play against the team drawn from Pot B
Step 3: The two picked balls from step 1 and 2 were be placed together in Pot C and the first one picked were to play the 1st match at home.
This operation will be repeated 14 times to determine the 28 matches.
The 14 winners will play against each other to determine the final seven who will go into the final draw (the forth pot of 7 teams).
Additional reporting by www.cafonline.
