[4][5] The qualifying draw was supposed to take place in Morocco on 10 March 2013 during CAF General Assembly.

[6] However, the CAF Executive Committee decided on 8 March 2013 that the qualifying draw would be held on 31 January 2014 in South Africa in line with the 2014 African Nations Championship.

[12] The top 21 teams listed in the CAF Ranking shall automatically qualify for the group stage.

The seven other teams playing in the group stage shall be determined following the conclusion of the qualifying rounds.

If tied on points, the tiebreaker is decided by the results of the latest editions of the Africa Cup of Nations.

[1] The draw for the preliminary round was held at the CAF Executive Committee on 21 February 2014 at Cairo, Egypt.

On 30 March 2014, Eritrea withdrew from the preliminary round of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers,[16] likely due to a rising number of the Eritrean national team players defecting from Eritrea during away matches.

South Sudan advanced to the first round after Eritrea, who have a history of their players defecting whilst on international duty, withdrew.

However, on 3 July 2014, the CAF announced that Equatorial Guinea were disqualified for fielding the ineligible player Thierry Fidjeu in the tie, and as a result, Mauritania advanced to the second round.

Seychelles advanced to the second round after Gambia were suspended from all CAF competitions for two years for deliberately fielding overage players in the 2015 African U-20 Championship qualification match against Liberia.

However, on 17 August 2014, the CAF announced that Rwanda were disqualified for fielding the ineligible player Daddy Birori in the tie, as it emerged that Birori had been using a different name and a Congolese passport when playing for his club side, AS Vita.

[28] Seychelles were forced to forfeit after the Sierra Leone team was barred by the Seychelles immigration authorities from entering the country to play the second leg for fears over the West African Ebola virus epidemic.