June 22, 1999

DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - The next African Cup of Nations, scheduled to be jointly hosted by Ghana and Nigeria in 2000, will be dominated by countries usually in the game, as only one newcomer has qualified for the encounter at the end of the last elimination matches played at the week-end.

Out of the 15 countries that have qualified for the finals, 14 featured in the last edition in Burkina Faso.

The only "newcomers" are Nigeria, which was serving a suspension, and Congo Brazzaville which did not take part in the 1998 edition.

Namibia failed to re-enact its repeat of their feat two years ago and therfore, will be absent in the 2000 finals.

The same goes for Guinea which has been eliminated, paving the way for the regulars to dominate the fiesta, considered to Africa's equivalent of the World Cup.

In Group 1, which was reduced to three after Ghana was selected as one of the hosts, Cameroon qualified with 10 points ahead of Mozambique and Eritrea. However, Eritrea, which placed second, still has a chance to feature depending on how they perform at the forthcoming triangular matches with Zimbabwe and Senegal.

In Group 2, also reduced to three by Sierra Leone's withdrawal, Morocco (8 points) and Togo (5 points) have won the two spots at the expense of Guinea. The Togolese, who lost no match, confirmed their oustanding performance at the last cup finals.

In Group 3, Cote d'Ivoire (11 points) retained its spot with some difficulty after a barren draw in Abidjan against Mali. Congo-Brazzaville (10 points), which has not appeared at the finals since 1992, did not let the opportunity slip by this time, thrashing Namibia (3-0), to return to the competition.

In Group 4, South Africa (11 points) and Gabon (11 points) kept faith with tradition by eliminating Angola and Mauritius.

In Group 5, reduced to three with Nigeria's automatic qualification as co-host with Ghana, Burkina Faso (8 points) narrowly outplayed Senegal and Burundi to snatch the second place.

Like Eritrea and Zimbabwe, Senegal can still entertain the hope of qualifying if it scales through in the triangular encounters in July.

In Group 6, Zambia (13 points) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (10 points) have logically won the first two spots by edging out Madagascar and Kenya.

In Group 7, Tunisia and Algeria also qualified at the expense of Liberia and Uganda.

Thus, except for Egypt, the defending champions, Ghana and Nigeria, co-organizers, the countries which have qualified are South Africa, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Morocco, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo and Tunisia.

The 16th team will be the winner in the 3 July triangular matches involving Eritrea, Senegal and Zimbabwe.