Defending Africa Cup of Nations champions Morocco will begin their campaign to retain the title on September 25 with a home match against Gabon at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, before traveling to South Africa to face Lesotho four days later.
The fixtures and officials were confirmed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) last week. South African referee Abongile Tom will officiate the Gabon match, while Cameroonian referee Abdou Abdel Mefire has been appointed for the meeting with Lesotho in Bloemfontein. Both matches fall within the first international window of the qualifying campaign, which runs from September 21 to October 6.
Morocco have been drawn in Group A alongside Gabon, Niger and Lesotho.
The main talking point surrounding the opening double-header, however, will not only be the opponents but also the absence of two key players. Achraf Hakimi and Ismaël Saibari will both miss the September 25 opener against Gabon after being sanctioned by CAF following incidents during the 2025 AFCON final against Senegal.
Hakimi was initially handed a two-match suspension, with one match suspended for one year, meaning he will serve a one-match ban. Saibari's initial three-match suspension was reduced on appeal to two matches, with one suspended, meaning he will also serve only one match. CAF's Appeal Board also overturned the $100,000 fine imposed on Saibari.
Both players are therefore expected to be available for the September 29 match against Lesotho, provided there are no other issues.
Their absence will give head coach Mohamed Ouahbi, in his first senior coaching role, an early selection challenge as he prepares Morocco for the qualifying campaign following their run to the World Cup quarter-finals this summer, which ended with a 2-0 defeat to France.
Moroccan outlet SNRT News has reported that Ouahbi is considering several options to replace Hakimi against Gabon. Anderlecht's Ali Maamar and Espanyol's Omar El Hilali are among the candidates to start at right-back. Another possibility would be to move Noussair Mazraoui back to his preferred position on the right and use Anass Salah-Eddine on the left.
The opening qualifiers also come against the backdrop of the extraordinary controversy surrounding the previous AFCON final.
Senegal initially defeated Morocco 1-0 after extra time in the January 18 final in Rabat. The match was disrupted late in normal time when Senegalese players briefly left the field following a protest over a penalty decision. They eventually returned and Senegal went on to win through Pape Gueye's extra-time goal.
CAF's Disciplinary Board initially rejected Morocco's attempt to have the result overturned. However, the CAF Appeal Board reversed that decision on March 17, ruling that Senegal had forfeited the final under Articles 82 and 84 of the AFCON regulations and recording the result as a 3-0 victory for Morocco.
Senegal has said it will challenge the ruling before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, leaving the controversy surrounding the final unresolved beyond CAF's decision.
For Ouahbi, however, the opening qualifiers offer an opportunity to broaden his options rather than simply compensate for the absence of two established players.
The coach and his Portuguese assistant, João Sacramento, are expected to monitor a number of young players across Europe ahead of the September squad announcement. Among those attracting attention are Ajax midfielder Abdellah Ouazane, left-back Adam Aznou, Anderlecht defender Ali Maamar and Rennes centre-back Abdelhamid Aït Boudlal.
Ajax midfielder Rayane Bounida, who switched his international allegiance from Belgium to Morocco earlier this year, is also reportedly on Ouahbi's radar, along with Yannis Bekraoui and goalkeeper Yannis Benchaouch.
That does not necessarily point to a major overhaul. Ouahbi is expected to maintain the core of the squad that reached the World Cup quarter-finals while using the qualifiers to assess his options and build greater depth in key positions.
The qualifying format gives Morocco an incentive to make a strong start. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which will be co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda from June 19 to July 17, 2027. Groups containing one of the three hosts will have an additional qualifying place, but Group A does not include a host nation.
The fixtures are spread across three international windows — September, November and March 2027 — making the opening double-header particularly important. Six points against Gabon and Lesotho would give Morocco a strong early position and could put them on course to secure qualification well before the final rounds. Anything less would leave greater room for their rivals to remain in contention.
Gabon are widely regarded as Morocco's main threat in the group, led by veteran striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Niger, coached by former Morocco manager Badou Zaki, and Lesotho appear less imposing on paper.
History also favors the Atlas Lions. In 21 meetings between the two sides, Morocco have recorded 11 victories, four draws and six defeats. Their most recent encounters were particularly one-sided, with Morocco beating Gabon 4-1 in Agadir in 2024 before securing a 5-1 victory in Franceville in the same AFCON qualifying campaign.
The September 25 meeting in Rabat will therefore give Gabon an opportunity to respond to those heavy defeats, although Morocco will not return to Franceville until later in the qualifying schedule.
For a federation that has invested heavily in expanding its talent pool, the September qualifiers provide Ouahbi with an early opportunity to test the depth behind Morocco's established core.
The emergence of young players, Bounida's decision to represent Morocco internationally and the growing presence of Moroccan talent in Europe's major leagues have all expanded the coach's options. With Hakimi and Saibari unavailable for the opener, some of those alternatives could get an early chance to prove themselves.
Whether those experiments become a permanent feature of Morocco's squad or remain short-term solutions will become clearer as the qualifying campaign progresses.
