2013 Afcon qualifiers draw tonight

The draw for the final round of qualifying for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations will take place at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg tonight.

The 16 nations that qualified for the 2012 edition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon start their bid for a place in South Africa next year, along with the likes of Nigeria and Cameroon who were absent from the last tournament, but have won through to this stage of qualifying.

There will be no Egypt though, they were ousted by Central African Republic on Saturday, a shock for The Pharaohs.

The 30 remaining nations have been placed in two separate pots, based on their performances at the last three Nations Cup tournament.

Teams received seven points as tournament winners, five as runners-up, three as losing semifinalists, two as losing quaterfinalists and one if they were eliminated in the first round.

These scores were then multiplied by one from the 2008 tournament, by two from the 2010 competition and by three from the 2012 event.

What that means is that the likes of Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Zambia cannot be drawn against each other as they all sit in Pot 1, while the only one of the traditional ‘big guns’ on the continent in Pot 2 are Senegal, though Libya will be a team to avoid as well.

Pot 1 contains Zambia, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Mali, Tunisia, Cameroon, Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, Sudan, Algeria, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso.

They will be drawn against one of the following sides in Pot 2: CAR, Senegal, Niger, Botswana, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Togo, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Liberia, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Libya.

The matches will be played over two legs, the first to take place on the weekend of September 7-9, with the second legs scheduled for the weekend of October 12-14.

The 15 teams who emerge victorious from the ties will join hosts South Africa in the field for the Nations Cup which runs from January 19 to February 10 next year