COSAFA HOPEFULS AWAIT DRAW
Four countries from the COSAFA region will go into Friday's draw for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in Angola from January 10-31.
Aside from the hosts, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi will all be watching with interest to see who they draw in Africa's premier continental competition.
The CAF Executive Committee will meet on Thursday to decide the seedings for the 16 qualified teams, who will then be split into four pots containing four teams each. The top four seeds will be in Pot 1, the team seeded 5-8 will be in Pot 2, 9-12 in Pot three and 13-16 in Pot 4.
There will be four groups at the tournament, with each featuring a side from one of the pots.
There is the liklihood that there will be some massive match-ups in the first round group stage, given that the likes of Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Togo, Mali and Tunisia have all qualified, meaning those teams could be pooled together in the group stages.
The draw process will be overseen by CAF President Issa Hayatou, as well as CAF Executive Committee members and representatives of the 16 competing teams.
With Angola hosting the tournament, it is just the second time it will be staged in the Sourthern African region (after South Africa in 1996) and will be played in four new venues in Luanda, Cabinada, Benguela and Lobango.
The opening match will be in Luanda on January 10, with the final in the same city exactly three weeks later on January 31.
The 16 qualified sides: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia