CHAN Qualifiers Hit Top Gear

The qualification compe
tition for the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) kicks into top gear this weekend with more than a dozen matches taking place across the continent.
The CHAN tournament is open only to players who play their trade in their country’s domestic leagues. The tournament has been held in 2009, 2011 and 2014, with DR Congo, Tunisia and Libya emerging as the respective champions.
The qualifying process is broken up into six different zones, most of which have preliminary and playoff rounds, though the Northern Zone comprises a three-way group stage between Tunisia, Morocco and Libya.
The top two from the Northern Zone will qualify for the tournament and their round-robin began earlier this week when Morocco and Tunisia played to a 1-1 drawin Casablanca. Yesterday saw Libya and Tunisia lock horns, while Morocco and Libya will clash on Sunday.
Zone West A sees four preliminary round, first leg matches in the following pairings: Guinea-Bissau v Mali; Mauritania v Sierra Leone; Guinea v Liberia; and Senegal v Gambia.
Zone West B, which features the likes of Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, has no preliminary round and will get underway in October.
The Central Zone, comprising of Cameroon, DR Congo, Gabon, CAR, Chad and Congo, also has no preliminary round and will kick-off in October, while the Central East Zone sees three preliminary round, first leg matches in the following pairings: Tanzania v Uganda; Djibouti v Burundi; and Ethiopia v Kenya.
The Southern Zone is the busiest this weekend, with six preliminary round, first leg matches in the following pairings: Zimbabwe v Comoros; Lesotho v Botswana; Namibia v Zambia; Mozambique v Seychelles; South Africa v Mauritius; and Swaziland v Angola.
The second leg matches of the preliminary round across the different zones will be played on the first weekend of July.