The stage is set at the Mohammed V National Theatre in Rabat, Morrocco, where 24 African nations will learn who their opponents will be in the group stage of this year’s CAF Africa Cup of Nations tournament. The draw takes place on Monday evening.

The tournament will be staged from December 21 to 18 January 2026 in the north African country.

Coaches, players and fans across the African continent are eager to find out who their teams will face in the group stage in Morocco.

The 24 teams include perennial powerhouses, rising nations, as well as several debutants. They will be divided into four pots of six teams each.

The top two teams in each group, along with the four best third-placed teams will advance to the round of 16.

The teams have been seeded based on their FIFA rankings.

Pot 1 will include hosts Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, as well as defending champions Ivory Coast.

South Africa, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and DR Congo will be in pot 2 and will avoid each other in the group stage.

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says his team has grown in stature over the last couple of years and as a result, the support has grown as well. And the 2024 AFCON bronze medalists want to be the pride of the nation.

Bafana Bafana coach, Hugo Broos says, “I think we made the people happy and this is something that is important too so more and more we win supporters. It’s a big difference from three years ago when there were 2 000 or 2 500 people coming to see our games and people are coming because when they come to the stadium they see something and this is what we always wanted to do”.

Broos became the first Bafana Bafana coach to qualify for two successive AFCON tournaments, and they want to match or even improve on their performance in Ivory Coast last year when they won their first AFCON medal in 24 years.

Broos believes his team now has the ability to compete against and beat any nation on the African continent. “Football technically you have to be good this is normal and there is something that’s the physical side of football to be able to play 90 minutes but also to have the power, and now we have that power in our team now and we also had that in the AFCON that’s why we do the good results, that’s why we can compete with teams like Algeria, like Ivory Coast. What we did in March last year and in November I think two years ago was not possible.”

Morocco will be hosting the tournament for the first time since 1988, and will look forward to capitalise on home-ground advantage.

The Atlas Lions are one of the AFCON favourites following their near-perfect run in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar where they reached the semi-finals.

Defending champions Ivory Coast and 2021 winners Senegal are the other tournament favourites.

South Africa’s neighbours Botswana will return to the AFCON for only the second time since 2012, when they made their debut.

The AFCON draw takes place at eight PM and will be broadcast live to over 90 countries, including South Africa.