Countries That Have Never Played in AFCON: Africa’s Untapped Football Nations

The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) is the continent’s premier football championship, showcasing Africa’s best national teams in a tournament steeped in history and passion. While 44 out of 54 African nations have featured in the AFCON finals at least once, a small group of countries have never played in AFCON despite years of participation in qualifying campaigns.

These teams continue to chase that breakthrough moment that would bring continental football glory to their nations. With the Afcon 2025 coming up soon we decided to check out these Counties who are yet to have a taste of the competition.

Who Are the Countries That Have Never Played in AFCON?

Several African nations have yet to make their debut appearance at the AFCON finals, often due to limited football infrastructure, competitive qualifying groups, or resource challenges. The list of countries that have never played in AFCON includes:

• Central African Republic – A long-standing CAF member still awaiting its first finals qualification. Although they continue to compete in group qualifiers, the Central African Republic has not finished high enough in any group to reach an AFCON finals.

  
  

• Chad – Despite decades of qualifying attempts, Chad’s national team has never reached the finals. Their most recent close campaign saw them progress from the preliminary round into the group stage of the 2025 qualifiers before finishing behind stronger opponents.

  
  

• Djibouti – The Horn of Africa nation continues to develop its football programme but has yet to secure a finals berth. Their participation in qualifiers has shown incremental improvement, even in defeat.

• Eritrea – Has struggled with qualifying participation and infrastructure challenges, leading to no AFCON appearances. Eritrea has struggled when participating in early rounds of past campaigns, they have not progressed beyond preliminary stages or group contention.

• Eswatini – Formerly Swaziland, this small kingdom has entered qualifying rounds in recent years without making the finals.

  
  

• Lesotho – A regular qualifier competitor in the COSAFA region but still seeking a breakthrough into AFCON. Lesotho has reached the group stage of qualifiers on occasion (for example via preliminary wins in 2023 qualifiers) but has not finished in the top two of any group to secure an AFCON finals spot.

  
  

• São Tomé and Príncipe – The island nation has yet to advance from qualifiers into the continental finals. They have occasionally progressed to the qualifiers’ group stages (as they did in 2023), but has not been close to reaching the final tournament itself.

• Seychelles – Despite CAF membership, Seychelles has never reached AFCON. Their qualification campaigns have ended in first-round exits without reaching group play.

  
  

• Somalia – Ongoing internal challenges and limited football development have stalled AFCON ambitions.

  
  

• South Sudan – The youngest African nation on this list, it has tried multiple times without success since joining CAF in 2012. They got into the group stage in 2025 qualifiers but has yet to move beyond group struggles into an AFCON finals appearance.

  
  

Why Qualification Is So Tough

Qualifying for AFCON has become increasingly competitive, with expanded formats and strong teams across all regions of the continent. Even well-established nations sometimes miss out, for example, Ghana failed to reach AFCON 2025, ending a long streak of appearances.

For the countries that have never played in AFCON, navigating tough qualifying groups and building sustainable football systems remain major challenges they strive to overcome.