Several nations from the COSAFA region will begin their journey towards the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania 2027 when the preliminary qualification round begins this week.
Eswatini, Seychelles, Lesotho and Mauritius will all be involved at this stage of the qualifiers.
Eritrea and Eswatini renew acquaintances in Meknes, Morocco, where the first leg will be played at the Stade d’Honneur on 25 March.
Eswatini will then look to make home advantage count in the second leg at the Somhlolo National Stadium in Lobamba on 31 March.
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COSAFA rivals Lesotho and Seychelles will meet on 26 March when they clash at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, before facing off again at the same venue three days later.
On 27 March, Somalia host Mauritius in the first leg at Lalgy Arena in Matola, Mozambique before Mauritius host the return encounter at the National Sports Complex in Saint Pierre on 31 March.
Eswatini will hope to qualify for their first finals, having been regulars in the preliminary rounds since their first attempt in 1986. It has been tough going, though, with only 10 wins in 73 qualifiers, but there have been signs in recent editions that they are getting closer.
They have recent wins over Zimbabwe (twice) and Madagascar in the African Nations Championship qualifiers, which is very close to their regular squad. They also held Cameroon and Angola in the recent World Cup qualifiers.
Lesotho are the highest-ranked side in the preliminary round and are coming off a strong showing in the recent World Cup qualifiers. There they held Nigeria to a 1-1 draw in West Africa, beat Zimbabwe and also drew away in Rwanda.
Those are an impressive set of results, showing they are a team on the rise. They have yet to qualify for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, having won 14 of their 91 preliminary-stage matches to date.
Mauritius have found the going tough of late but will be hoping a new campaign brings with it better results. They have never met Somalia before, so it will be something of an unknown quantity, but they ended their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 0-0 draw against a strong Libya team to show their potential.
They have been to the continental finals before, but lost all three group games in Egypt in 1974. That is their only appearance.
Outside of Eritrea, who have no ranking, Seychelles are the lowest-ranked side in the qualifiers and come up against COSAFA rivals Lesotho, who are the highest.
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They have won five of their 42 qualifiers in the past, and none since a victory over Lesotho in the preliminaries for 2017. The last time they reached the group stage of qualifying was for 2019. They first entered the preliminary competition in 1990.
TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations PAMOJA 2027 Preliminary Round Fixtures
Times are GMT25/03 – 14h00: Eritrea vs Eswatini – Stade d’Honneur, Meknes31/03 – 14h00: Eswatini vs Eritrea – Somhlolo National Stadium, Lobamba
26/03 – 14h00: Seychelles vs Lesotho – Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
29/03 – 15h00: Lesotho vs Seychelles – Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
26/03 – 13h00: Djibouti vs South Sudan – Juba Stadium, Juba
29/03 – 13h00: South Sudan vs Djibouti – Juba Stadium, Juba
27/03 – 13h00: Somalia vs Mauritius – Lalgy Arena, Matola31/03 – 15h00: Mauritius vs Somalia – National Sports Complex, Saint Pierre
27/03 – 13h00: Chad vs Burundi – Stade Olympique, N’Djamena31/03 – 13h00: Burundi vs Chad – Stade Intwari, Bujumbura
27/03 – 16h00: Sao Tome e Principe vs Ethiopia – Ben M’Hamed El Abdi Stadium, El Jadida31/03 – 13h00: Ethiopia vs Sao Tome e Principe – Dire Dawa Stadium