The 48 qualifiers (45 direct entrants plus 3 winners of the first round) were split into 12 groups of four in the draw held in Durban, South Africa, on 25 November 2007.
As not all groups were of equal size after the exclusion of Ethiopia and the withdrawal of Eritrea, when ranking the runners-up, their results against their group's 4th placed team would not be counted.
[2] Cameroon Nigeria Ivory Coast Morocco Ghana Tunisia Egypt Guinea Senegal Mali Angola Togo Zambia South Africa Cape Verde DR Congo Algeria Burkina Faso Benin Mozambique Libya Ethiopia Congo Zimbabwe Uganda Botswana Equatorial Guinea Tanzania Gabon Malawi Sudan Burundi Liberia Rwanda Eritrea Namibia Gambia Mauritania Kenya Chad Lesotho Mauritius Niger Swaziland Seychelles Sierra Leone Madagascar Djibouti
Eight people, all young men, were crushed to death by crowds before this match outside the stadium.
Eritrea withdrew from the qualifiers on 25 March 2008 and were not replaced.