MALI 2002 - The African Cup Of Nations XXIII 
   The Qualification

*The CAF (Confederation of African Football) achieved that 51 Nations entered the competition. Although several countries had missed the deadline for entries, the CAF made a honorable and successful attempt to convince this record number of entries to take part and overcame all communications problems. It probably helped that among those who did not enter was the DR Congo. It was reported that the CAF used Radio program calls to make it clear to their association they are not in. Only Somalia did not want to enter. But they played in the World Cup qualification. That means that if no country withdraws there will be at least two competition matches for all members this year. This is a sensational progress for a continent, where travelling is difficult and the financial situation of the game is very problematic. 
This is also the reason for the mode: a preliminary knock out round makes it unlikely that the smallest associations will have to play group matches, which would exceed the capacities of some of them. 

*the home team of the first leg is first, the results and facts of the second leg and the teams who advance are in bold: 

Gambia v Guinea  2:2 + 0:2  
-(Abdoulie Corr 31pen, 44pen - Diane Talfour 39, Souleymane Yula '87, att 15,000) 
-(Titi Camara 8, Souleymane Youla 90 - att. 15,000) 

Mauritania v Burkina Faso  0:0 + 0:3 
-() 
-(Oumar Barro '23, '71; Manga Diabate '76 - att. 25,000) 

Niger v Côte d'Ivoire  0:1 + 0:6  
-(Aruna Dindane '55) 
-(Bamba Siaka '9, Serge Alain Yoffou '42, '65, '68, Venance Zeze '77, Zephirin Zoko '84- att. 25,000) 

Cape Verde Islands v Liberia  1:0 + 0:3 
-() 
-(George Weah '3, halftime 0:1, Salinsah Debbah, George Weah) 

Equatorial Guinea v Angola  0:1 + 1:4 
-(Isaac '72) 
-(Mba Casiano '33 - Paulão '14, Akwa '18, Mendonça '83, Isaac '88 - att. 20,000)   

Seychelles v Zimbabwe 0:1 + 0:5  
-(Mwaruwari '35) 
-(Luke Petros (2), Blessing Makunike, Peter Ndlovu, Nqobizitha Ncube - att. 30,000) 

Rwanda v Congo  2:1 + 0:5 
-() 
-(Mayele '80 - Lebali Eder '6, Goma Amoros '8pen, Pedel Moyimouadeka '26, Ngoma de Nanitelamio '61, Tsoumou Benis '61 - att. 30,000) 

Central African Republic v Democratic Republic of Congo 1:1 + 0:2 
-() 
-(Jean-Jacques Yemweni '6, Janson Mayele '82, att 75,000) 

Djibouti v Burundi  1:3 + 0:1 
-(C.Kongolo '47-og - N'Dayiragije '30, K.Kongolo '40, Mossi '74) 
-(Damas Amuyali '34, att. 6,000) 

Botswana v Madagascar  1:0 + 0:2  
-(Selolwane '30) 
-(Hary Randrianaivo '3, Claude Ralaitafika 'early second half) 

Chad v Libya  3:1 + 1:3 pen.: 7:8  
-Tough luck for poor Chad: only recently the country has reentered the CAF competitions after money shortage had caused absence in the years before. Against Libya they came close to a surprise success. 

Tanzania v Mauritius 0:1 + 2:3 
-(Naboh '57) 
-(Cassim Tembele '24, Ntese Lungu '28 - Sebastian Bax '77, Tony Francois '79, Christopher  
Perle '88) *because of riots after league matches the Mauritius government has ruled even national team matches to be played without any audience, so attendance was 150. Mauritius achieved to turn around the match late in the second half, another disappointment for Tanzania, a country with a relatively huge population and disappointing underachievers in relation to talent 

Lesotho v Mozambique 1:0 + 0:1 pen.: 3:2 
-(Ntsonyane '86, att. 5,000) 
-(Dario 82, att. 15,000) Sensation: tiny Lesotho eliminates Mozambique who are in a football crisis only 4 years after a respectable display at the Nations Cup finals at South Africa and only two years after their second successive participation at the finals at Burkina Faso. Of course there has been a clear logistical disadvantage after Mozambique was hit hard by the flooding catstrophe and has other worries to cope with. A pity that football could not deliver a positive signal here.  

Swaziland v Kenya 3:2 + 0:3 
-(D.Dlamini '43, '75-pen, M.Dlamini '56 - Otieno '38, Okoth '86) 
-(Bernard Onyango '19, Mike Okoth '78, Sammy Simiyu '83, att. 15,000) 

Uganda v Malawi 3:1 + 2:1  
- (Hassan Mubiru '3, Hakim Magumba '14, Andrew Mukasa '52pen - Chitsulo Dan '89, att 15,000) 
- (att. 25,000) After their surprise qualification for the group matches at the World Cup qualification now a setback for the new Malawi generation. Just the other way round for Uganda: After a disappointing knock out in the World Cup qualifiers they will compete in the African Nations Cup qualifiers for a place at the finals now, trying to revive East African football along with Kenya. 

Benin v Namibia  2:0 + 2:8  
- (Leon Bessan 46, Moussa Latoundji 50, att. 25,000)  
- (Eric Assouma '6,'12 - Robert Nauseb '4, Silvester Goraseb '8, '20, '36,Razundura Tjikuzu '25, '43, Quinton Jacobs '31 pen, Colin Benjamin '77, att. 5,000) 

Sao Tome e Principe v Gabon  1:1 + 1:4   
- (Touga '5 - Toumboucha '12)  
- (Amilcar '88 - Etienne Bito'o '17, '21, '70, Valery Ondo '50, att. 15,000) 

Ethiopia v Zambia 1:0 + 0:2   
- (Getachew '34, att. 25,000) 
- (Bernard Makufi '2, Gift Kampamba '67) Zambia escaped the desaster while once East African football giants Ethiopia with a huge population will remain locked out from the big competitions for another two years. 

Sudan v Eritrea  5:1 + 1:2  
-(Khalid Bakheit '4, James Joseph '11, Mohamed Musa '54, Hisham Seeni '56, Amir Mustafa '86 - Basili Abraham '6) 
-()    

Guinea Bissau v Morocco Guinea Bissau is reported to have withdrawn for financial reasons  

Sierra Leone v Togo  *Togo did not arrive because of security fears, CAF will decide on the match later, the return leg has been postponed until then 

Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal all have byes in the first round 
Cameroon (title holders) and Mali (hosts) are automatically qualified  

Mali 2002 - the qualification: the group matches