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Doha – The Moroccan national football team has qualified directly for the final tournament of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN), to be held in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from February 1-28, 2025.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) made this decision on Wednesday after Algeria, the previous hosts and 2022 runners-up, announced their withdrawal from the competition. Egypt has also declined to participate.
This leaves only three teams from the North Africa zone – Morocco, Tunisia and Libya – who will all now qualify automatically. Mauritania is the only North African nation that will have to go through the qualifying rounds.
The qualification draw, held on Wednesday morning at CAF headquarters in Cairo, set up some interesting clashes in the other zones, while reigning champions Senegal received a bye to the second round. A highlight will be the West Zone playoff between rivals Ghana and Nigeria.
Morocco has won the CHAN title a record two times, first as hosts in 2018 and then in Cameroon in 2020. The Atlas Lions will be represented by their under-23 squad at the 2024 edition, coached by Tarik Sektioui.
This decision was made to give more opportunities to young domestic-based players and avoid disrupting the national league schedule. The U23s will also represent Morocco at the 2024 Arab Cup in Qatar.
The CHAN is restricted to players who represent clubs in their own national leagues. Several nations have opted out of the upcoming tournament, citing busy club schedules, while the East African hosts are using it as a dry run before staging the full Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.
Walid Regragui, head coach of Morocco’s senior national team, explained the choice to send the U23s, stating, “We are not interested in having a 32-year-old player compete in CHAN or the Arab Cup just to sign a contract in the Gulf afterwards. What matters to us is training and the opportunity for young people to learn.”
According to CAF, the first round of qualifiers will be played from October 25-27 and November 1-3, 2024, with the second round confirmed for December 20-22 and December 27-29, 2024.
Senegal defeated Algeria 5-4 on penalties in the 2022 CHAN final in Algiers to lift their first title. Morocco’s Ayoub El Kaabi is the competition’s all-time leading scorer with 12 goals. The 2024 tournament in East Africa will be the 8th edition of the CHAN since its inception in 2009.
Read also: FIFA: Morocco Is a Rising Power in World of Football
