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Phillip Chiyangwa

Sports Reporter
AS expected, the Warriors will be among the lowest-ranked teams when the 2016 Africa Cup of Nations draw is conducted in Gabon on October 19 after they were placed in the last pot among other minnows. In the draw format released by CAF yesterday, Zimbabwe, Uganda who are making an AFCON appearance after a lengthy absence of 38 years, Togo and Guinea Bissau have been pooled together in pot four.

This means they will avoid each other in the group stages. Hosts Gabon, African champions Cote d’Ivoire, the continent’s best-ranked team Algeria and Ghana are the top seeds and make up the first pot.

Pot two has Tunisia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo while the quartet of Cameroon, Senegal, Morocco and Egypt complete pot three. According to a statement released by CAF on Tuesday evening, the seedings have been approved by the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations after it met on Monday in Cairo, Egypt.

The committee also considered how teams had fared in the last three Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, the 2014 World Cup and the qualifiers which preceded the tournament. The tournament will be held from January 14 to February 5 in the Gabon capital Libreville and other cities Franceville, Oyem-Bitam and Port Gentil.

ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa is in Cairo for the CAF extraordinary general assembly where he also attended the meeting for the continental body’s Under-20 organising committee for which he is a member.

Draw Format:
Pot 1: Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria.

Pot 2: Tunisia, Mali, Burkina Faso, DR Congo.Pot 3: Cameroon, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt.

Pot 4: Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau.