The first All Africa Games were held in Congo (Brazzaville) in 1965. Since 1987 they have been established in a 4-year cycle held the year before the Olympics and from 1991 have been restricted to an U-23 competition with only three over-age players allowed. The Olympics counterpart is also an U23 event.

Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia and South Africa will contest the finals in Abuja from Oct 4-16 2003.

Qualifying Rounds

Zone 1 - North Africa (Algeria, Libya)
Zone 2 - far West Africa (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea)
Zone 3 - near West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Benin, Niger)
Zone 4 - Central Africa (Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda)
Zone 5 - East Africa (Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Egypt)
Zone 6 - Southern Africa (Malawi, Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia)

Zone One (North Africa)
25 Jan 03	Libya	1-1	0-0	Algeria	23 Feb 03

Zone Two (far West Africa)
	Mali	w/o	w	Mauritania
21 Sep 02	Senegal	1-1	3-2	Guinea	27 Oct 02
24 Jan 03	Senegal	1-1	1-0	Mali	23 Feb 03

Zone Three (near West Africa)
Preliminary round
	Benin	w	w/o	Liberia
	Niger	w	w/o	Togo
First round
	Liberia	w	w/o	Ghana
	Togo	w	w/o	Côte d'Ivoire
	Ghana	w/o	w	Côte d'Ivoire
No matches played in this group - Ghana goes through by default

Zone Four (Central Africa)
	Rwanda	w/o	w	Congo
24 Jan 03	Cameroon	3-0	1-2	Rwanda	22 Feb 03

Zone Five (East Africa)
2-Nation tournament in Egypt
23 Dec	Kenya	0-0	1-2	Egypt	26 Dec
Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda withdrew

Zone Six (Southern Africa)
Preliminary round
7 Jul 02	Swaziland	1-1	0-2	Namibia	4 Aug 02
6 Jul 02	Botswana	1-0	2-1	Lesotho	4 Aug 02
First round
3 Nov 02	Zimbabwe	1-0	1-1	Mozambique	24 Nov 02
21 Sep 02	Zambia	2-0	1-2	Namibia	27 Oct 02
22 Sep 02	South Africa win 4-3 pen	2-2	2-2	Malawi	26 Oct 02
22 Sep 02	Angola	4-1	1-1	Botswana	26 Oct 02
Second round
26 Jan 03	Zimbabwe	2-1	0-1	Zambia	22 Feb 03
24 Jan 03	South Africa	2-0	2-2	Angola	23 Feb 03
Two winners qualify