Five knockout ties were originally required, involving the ten lowest ranked African countries (based on FIFA rankings as of July 2007).
The actual draw was apparently conducted one day before the format was announced by CAF.
The pairings were:[1] São Tomé and Príncipe and the Central African Republic both withdrew in early September.
As a result, Swaziland and Seychelles (the highest ranked of the ten nations) were no longer required to play in this round, and the teams they were originally matched against, Somalia and Djibouti, were redrawn to play each other instead.
[citation needed] Sierra Leone won 1 – 0 on aggregate and advanced to the second round.