The African Cup of Nations, otherwise known as the AFCON, is the premier international soccer tournament played on the African continent. The best teams from across the continent face off in this biannual tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football for the right to be dubbed the best team in Africa.
Many teams across Africa have had the privilege of qualifying and participating in this illustrious competition over the years. However, a few countries have never been able to qualify to play at the AFCON. Today, we take a look at the 10 countries that have never qualified for the AFCON.
1. Somali
This troubled nation located on the horn of Africa in the eastern part of the continent has never appeared at the AFCON. Despite playing in a few qualifiers years back, civil war, internal strife, and collapse of recognized government have prevented organized sports like football from being played in Somali.
2. Eritrea
This northeast African country has also never been to the Nation’s Cup. Lack of funding due to internal conflict and an almost non-existent football association have meant that Eritrea could never put up a team capable of qualifying.
3. Seychelles
This beautiful and picturesque island nation has never participated in the final AFCON tournament. Their relatively tiny population makes it almost impossible to raise competitive soccer teams and almost every time end of the bottom of their qualifying group.
4. South Sudan
This new African country barely started playing international football a couple of years ago. This, coupled with internal conflict and lack of funding, has prevented the team from qualifying for the AFCON.
5. Lesotho
Despite their best attempts, this landlocked southern African country has never qualified for the premier African tournament. Their small population and general lack of resources has hampered their efforts to qualify. Lesotho national team’s nickname is “Likuena” or Crocodiles.
6. Chad
Chad have also never qualified for the AFCON due mostly to lack of funding that consistently makes them pull out mid-way into the qualifiers.
7. Sao Tome and Principe
Sao Tome and Principe is another island country that have found it difficult to qualify due to their small population and lack of resources.
8. Eswatini
This small African kingdom has never qualified to play in the AFCON in their entire history. Despite always being involved in qualifiers, they have never quite been able to break the jinx.
9. Djibouti
The horn of Africa nation hasn’t fared well in all the qualifiers they have featured in over the years. A combination of lack of talent, funding, and organizing has not allowed them to progress all these years.
10. Central African Republic
CAR has somewhat surprisingly never qualified for the AFCON despite years of involvement in African football. The captain of Central African Republic is Athletico Madrid midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia.
