The 16 finalists for the 2015 Afcon have a January 7 deadline to submit their final squads to avoid sanctions.

Supersport.com has gathered that the Confederation of African Football expects to receive all the 23-man squad lists from the competing teams by midnight of that fateful Wednesday.

Caf bears the expenses of a combined delegation of 40 players and officials during the period of the Afcon tournament – January 17 to February 8, 2015.

This means each team can only submit names of as many as 17 members likely technical team and FA officials to the playing body to be accredited for the competition in Equatorial Guinea.

Algeria became the first nation to announce their 23-man squad. Other nations have also begun with their provisional lists from which a total of 368 names of players will be submitted to Caf by January 7.

Any nation that fails to meet the Caf deadline attracts a substantial fine and will have its player allocation reduced to 22.

The opening match of the 30th edition of the Afcon comes off between hosts Equatorial Guinea and Congo in Bata on January 17, 2015.