Record seven-time champions Egypt will be shock absentees when the final qualifying round draw for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa on Thursday 5th July.

The 15 teams of the level 1 namely ; Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Equatorial, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Zambia will be in Pot A and the 15 teams of level 2 namely, Botswana, Cap Vert, Central Africa, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, RD Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo , Uganda, Zimbabwe will be in Pot B and pot C will contain 2 balls: ball A and ball B

Step 1: A draw made to pick one team from Pot A

Step 2: A draw made to pick one team from Pot B

Step 3: A ball will be taken from Pot C.

If ball A is drawn first from Pot C, it means that the team drawn from pot A will play his 1st match at home and the team drawn from pot B will play his 2nd match at home.

If ball B is drawn first from pot C, it means that the team drawn from pot B will play his 1st match at home and the team drawn from pt A will play his 2nd match at home.

Apart from pairing off the countries, there will be a separate draw to decide which one has home advantage first in the final round scheduled for the weekends of September 7-9 and October 12-14 this year.