A suddenly competitive Botswana side, having just earned qualification to next year’s African Nations Cup, are to battle neighbours South Africa in CAF Group A on their route to the 2014 Men’s World Cup. Other CAF highlights include Morocco’s attempt to return to the world stage by taking on Côte d’Ivoire in Group C, and 2006 qualifiers Togo having to fight through a preliminary round series with Guinea-Bissau just to make it to CAF group I with Cameroon and Libya. The first placed team in each group must then fight one another in the playoffs for the five CAF places at Brazil 2014.
» Preliminary round:
• Series 1: Seychelles-Kenya
• Series 2: Guinea-Bissau-Togo
• Series 3: Djibouti-Namibia
• Series 4: Mauritius-Liberia
• Series 5: Comoros-Mozambique
• Series 6: Equatorial Guinea-Madagascar
• Series 7: Somalia-Ethiopia
• Series 8: Lesotho-Burundi
• Series 9: Eritrea-Rwanda
• Series 10: Swaziland-Congo DR
• Series 11: São Tomé-Príncipe-Congo
• Series 12: Chad-Tanzania
» Group phase:
• Group A: South Africa, Botswana, Central African Rep, [Winner SOM-ETH]
• Group B: Tunisia, Cape Verde Is, Sierra Leone, [Winner EQG-MAD]
• Group C: Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Gambia, [Winner CHA-TAN]
• Group D: Ghana, Zambia, {{tid=sud}}, [Winner LES-BDI]
• Group E: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, [Winner STP-CGO]
• Group F: Nigeria, Malawi, [Winner SEY-KEN], [Winner DJI-NAM]
• Group G: Egypt, Guinea, Zimbabwe, [Winner COM-MOZ]
• Group H: Algeria, Mali, Benin, [Winner ERI-RWA]
• Group I: Cameroon, Libya, [Winner GNB-TOG], [Winner SWZ-COD]
• Group J: Senegal, Uganda, Angola, [Winner MRI-LBR]