Three Nations Have Already Qualified for 2027 AFCON Before Final Has Taken Place

Three nations have already qualified for the 2027 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) despite one of them not featuring in the 2025/26 tournament.

AFCON is currently ongoing in Morocco, with the hosts set to face Senegal in Sunday’s (January 18) final in Rabat.

Sadio Mane, Iliman Ndiaye, and Idrissa Gana Gueye will be hoping the West African nation can secure their second AFCON crown, having previously won the competition back in 2022.

Meanwhile, the Moroccan side, led by Paris Saint-Germain right-back Achraf Hakimi, will be aiming to secure their first AFCON triumph since 1976 in front of their home crowd.

But first, on Saturday (January 17), Mohamed Salah’s Egypt, who lost 1-0 against Senegal in the semi-final, will take on Nigeria in the dreaded third-place match in Casablanca.

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Sadio Mane's Senegal will play Morocco in the 2025/26 AFCON final (Credit:Getty)

As expected, two West African nations – Nigeria and Senegal – and two North African nations – Egypt and Morocco – reached the final stages of the competition this time around, while representatives of East Africa did not fare so well, with Ethiopia (1962) and Sudan (1970) being the only two teams from the region to have previously won the tournament.

However, East African fans will get the chance to see their heroes play in the 2027 AFCON, which will be hosted by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

24 teams will take part in the tournament hosted in 12 venues across ten cities from June to July of 2027.

The 36th edition of the showpiece event of African football will likely feature glamorous nations, including Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Morocco, but they will all have to take part in qualifying, which gets underway in March 2026, to ensure their spots at the tournament.

But the three co-hosts have already automatically qualified and will not take part in qualifying.

Just two East African nations have won AFCON (Credit:Getty)

Tanzania and Uganda both featured in the 2025/26 tournament but failed to secure a win between them and finished third and fourth behind Nigeria and Tunisia in Group C.

Kenya failed to qualify for the tournament and have not featured at AFCON since 2019.

From 2028, the tournament will be played every four years, while an African Nations League will take place annually.