Draw for 2008 African Nations Cup sees 47 countries

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 21 (GHP) -- Forty-seven countries have entered the qualifying draw for the 2008 African Nations Cup while only five countries left out of the pool, said the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Tuesday.

While the competition format has not been released by CAF, the draw will be made in Cairo on Thursday and qualifying will start this September.

Hosts Ghana advance automatically to the finals, and the five countries who have not entered are the Central African Republic, Comoros Islands, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome e Principe and Somalia.

Entrants:

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde Islands, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya,Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.