2027 AFCON Qualifiers: Full Matchday 1 and 2 kick-off dates and Time

• Ghana open their 2027 AFCON qualifiers against Côte d’Ivoire on September 24 at 7:00pm.

• The Black Stars will then host The Gambia on September 29 at 4:00pm.

• Matchdays 1 and 2 will run from September 24 to October 6, 2026, across 12 qualifying groups.

The race for places at the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) begins this week, with the first two rounds of qualifying matches scheduled from Thursday, September 24 to Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

A total of 48 countries have been placed into 12 groups of four teams for the qualifying campaign.

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The first two matchdays will have 48 matches played, with teams beginning their six-match journey to qualify for the tournament to be hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, 2027.

The Black Stars will begin their campaign away against Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday, September 24, before hosting The Gambia five days later.

The Ghana-Côte d’Ivoire clash is one of the biggest matches of the opening round and will be played in Bouaké at 7:00pm Ghana time (GMT). Ghana's second game against The Gambia is scheduled for 4:00pm on Tuesday, September 29 at the Accra Sports Stadium.

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The top two teams in each group will normally qualify for the 24-team AFCON tournament. However, because Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are automatically qualified as co-hosts, the qualification rules are different in their groups.

Kenya are in Group D, Uganda are in Group H, while Tanzania are in Group L. In each of those groups, only the highest-ranked team apart from the host nation will qualify for the finals.

The TotalEnergies CAF AFCON PAMOJA 2027 will be staged in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, 2027. The tournament will mark AFCON's return to East Africa for the first time since Ethiopia hosted the competition in 1976.

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