Congo qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining seven spots were determined by the qualifying rounds, which were organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and took place from February to April 2015.[1]
Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament.[2]
On 26 August 2015, the CAF announced that Egypt had withdrawn from the competition. Senegal, the team eliminated by Egypt in the final round, declined to replace them due to short notice. Therefore, only seven teams competed in the tournament, and Group B, where Egypt were drawn in, was composed of three teams only.[3]
The draw was held on 9 July 2015, 11:00 UTC+2, at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[4] The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four.[5][6] For the draw, the hosts Congo were seeded in position A1 and the holders Cameroon were seeded in position B1. The remaining six teams were drawn from one pot to fill the other positions in the two groups.[7]
The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals.
1 2 As Ghana and South Africa were tied on points, head-to-head record, total goal difference and total goals scored, a drawing of lots was held on 14 September 2015, 09:00 local time, to determine which team finished as runners-up of Group B,[9] which was won by Ghana.[10]
