The Black Stars will today know their group opponents for the qualification tournament of the 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations.

The draw will be held in Cairo immediately after the announcement of the host nation for the tournament. The qualifiers for the 31st edition of the AFCON will begin this midyear in the FIFA international window from June 8-16.

For the first time the host country will participate in the qualifying stages for the AFCON.

However, the matches concerned will not count for any points in their group, and will instead be classified as friendlies.

Fifty-two teams will be divided into 13 groups of four teams each. A four-tiered seeding system will see one team from each tier allocated per group.

The top team in each group will qualify for the tournament finals, as well as the best two runners-up – excluding the group involving the host country, from which only one team will qualify.

The Black Stars failed to win the 2015 edition which was held in Equatorial Guinea, as they were beaten  by Ivory Coast on penalties in the grand finale.

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