ZonesCentral East Zone (Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Eritrea)Southern Zone(South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland & Angola), Zone West A(Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Guinea)Central Zone: (Central Africa, Gabon, Congo, Chad, Cameroon and DR Congo) Zone West B (Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Benin) North Zone: (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt) The Confederation of African Football has re-admitted Cecafa member states, Kenya and Eritrea into the newly introduced Africa Nations Championships scheduled to run from January 18 to February 1, 2009 in Ivory Coast. The new tournament is a continental showcase like the African Nations Cup, the difference being that only home based players in each country are eligible. Initially, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti had been excluded from the 30 countries that were drawn for the preliminary round. However, the CAF Executive Committee granted the request to ten countries that had not met the registration deadline for any national association wishing to take part at the competition after the establishment of the fixtures for the competitions on February 24. Faced with this eagerness, CAF decided, exceptionally, to accept the ten countries and a new fixture is set to be amended accordingly to accommodate them. Despite accepting Kenya and Eritrea, other Cecafa member states including Djibouti, Somalia, Zanzibar and Ethiopia remain excluded. Eight teams including the hosts will play in the inaugural tournament next year. The qualifying phase will take place every even year and the final every odd year. Ends
