It is settled as all twenty-four teams to participate in the 2022 AFCON have been decided. While there were shocking misses and pleasantly admirable new entrants, African football may have taken a new shape by the quality and place of nations that have qualified.
Mauritania, The Gambia, Malawi, Guinea Bissau, Comoros and Equatorial Guinea have all earned a ticket to Cameroon and none of them is rated above 100th as at the last FIFA ranking.
Mauritania, ranked 101st in the world, finished second in group E to qualify for the 2022 African Cup of Nations. It is just their second qualification and their second on a trot after making it to the 2019 edition.
Comoros, ranked 130th in the world shocked the world when they finished behind Egypt in group G to qualify for the AFCON for the first time in their history.
Ranked 157th in the world, The Gambia proved to be the biggest surprise of the qualifiers as they made it through to Cameroon for the first time in their football history. The West Africans finished top of their group with 10 points.
Equatorial Guinea, ranked 134th in the world, Malawi sitting at 123rd, 112th-ranked Zimbabwe, 119th-ranked Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia 146th and Sudan sitting at 127th are the other African countries ranked 100 and above to make it to the continental showpiece.
The biggest shocker of the AFCON qualifiers was registered when Sudan tossed South Africa out of its place in the competition.
The 2022 AFCON is slated for January, months before the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.