2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification


This page details the process of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification phase. Forty-six African nations, including hosts Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, entered the competition. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea automatically qualified as host countries. The other 44 nations were drawn into eleven groups, each containing 4 teams. Togo was later added to Group K after its reinstatement.
In each group, teams played each other home and away in a round-robin format. The top team in each group qualified, as did the runner-up of Group K and the two best runners-up from the other groups.

Qualified teams

The teams qualified are:
CountryQualified asDate qualification was securedPrevious appearances in tournament
00Co-hosts0329 July 20074
01Co-hosts0029 July 20070
01Group K Winner0026 March 20110
01Group H Winner005 June 201118
01Group F Winner003 September 20117
01Group E Winner03 September 201111
01Group I Winner008 October 201117
01Group B Winner008 October 201110
01Group C Winner008 October 201114
01Top Two Runner-up008 October 2011[|2]
01Group J Winner008 October 20115
01Group K Runner-up008 October 201114
01Group A Winner008 October 20116
01Group G Winner008 October 20110
01Group D Winner009 October 201113
01Top Two Runner-up009 October 20117

Draw

CAF conducted the draw for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign on 20 February 2010. The draw was held at Lubumbashi, Congo DR where the CAF Super Cup was held on 21 February 2010. The 11 teams in Pot [|1] were selected based on their ranking after the 27th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. The rest were ranked based on their position at the latest FIFA Ranking.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4





;Notes
were banned from the 2012 and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments by CAF after they withdrew from the 2010 tournament following a deadly attack on their team bus.
Togo appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with FIFA president Sepp Blatter stepping in to mediate. The ban was subsequently lifted with immediate effect on 14 May 2010, after a meeting of the CAF Executive Committee. Togo were readmitted to the 2012 and 2013 tournaments, and added to the qualification stage.

Tie-breaking rules

The order of tie-breakers used when two or more team have the equal number of points is:
  1. Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
  2. Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
  3. Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
  4. Away goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
  5. Goal difference in all games;
  6. Goals scored in all games;
  7. Drawing of lots.

    Qualifying group stage

Group A


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Group B


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Group C


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Group E


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Group F


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Group J


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Group K


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Ranking of group runners-up

The two best runners-up from Groups A–J qualify for the 2012 ACN. After the withdrawal of Mauritania from Group F, the following rule applies:
The two best runners-up are determined by the following parameters in this order:
  1. Highest number of points
  2. Goal difference
  3. Highest number of goals scored
  4. Match replay in case of parity

Goalscorers

There were 327 goals scored in 130 games for an average of 2.52 goals per game.
;6 goals
;5 goals
;4 goals
;3 goals
;2 goals
;1 goal
;1 own goal