The draws for the group stage of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and the unveiling of the official ball of the competition, Marhaba, were held on Wednesday at the Sipopo Convention Centre, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
At the end of the draws, Equatorial Guinea drew Burkina Faso, Gabon and Congo in Group A, Zambia, Tunisia, Cape Verde and the Democratic Republic of Congo were in Group B, Ghana, Algeria, South Africa and Senegal made Group C while Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Cameroon and Guinea were in Group D.
Hosts Equatorial Guinea will play Congo in the tournament’s opening match on January 8 at the Bata Stadium, Bata while Groups B, C and D matches will hold in Ebebiyin, Mongomo and Malabo respectively.
The 16 qualified teams were divided into four pots based on the rankings established by their performances in the last three editions of the AFCON and the qualifiers of the 2012, 2013 and 2015 editions.
Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia were in Pot 1, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria were in Pot 2, Pot 3 contained Cape Verde, South Africa, Cameroon, Gabon while Pot 4 had Guinea, Senegal, DR Congo, Congo.
Pot 1 had the top seeds and hosts Equatorial Guinea, who were accorded the position A1.
The first part of the draw was the designation of the groups for the other top seeds; Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Zambia. The balls containing the names of the countries were placed in a pot and indexed B1, C1, D1 in another pot.
The second stage w as the drawing of teams from pot 4 with the first country designated the position A4, B4 and so on. The process was repeated identically for the other pots.
CAF President, Issa Hayatou, commended the Equatorial Guinea government for accepting to host the competition after Morocco, who were the earlier hosts, had pulled out due to the scare of the Ebola Virus Disease.
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