While 21 African national teams have received automatic qualification into the group stage of the 2015 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Amavubi are among the 30 teams that will have to go through a preliminary qualifying round. 

Indeed if Rwanda are to make it to Morocco 2015 they will have to overcome more hurdles than those countries that have consistently performed well in Afcon and World Cup qualifiers over the last three years.

This is a new format, approved during Caf’s executive committee meeting held last Friday, which differs from the usual pool format which would see all the 51 participating countries join the group stage right away. 

The new system, informed by the performances in Afcon editions for 2010, 2012 and 2013 as well as World Cup 2014 qualifiers, was announced on Monday.

And the Amavubi head coach Eric Nshimiyimana is keenly aware of the challenges this poses to his side. 

"It is a tricky format but we will focus on winning our games and  going as far as we can in the qualifiers,” said Nshimiyimana, the man who was part of a generation of players to ever take Rwanda to any Afcon finals – in 2004. 

He added: "I am waiting for the draws so we can know our opponents. It is clear that this campaign will be tough but we’ll do everything possible to get to the group stage.”

The preliminary qualifying draw will be conducted on April 27 in Cairo, Egypt.

The latest Fifa World rankings put Rwanda in the 39th position in Africa, with the country among the worst ranked in the region. Amavubi have been on a freefall for the last couple of years, with the highlight of this disastrous run being the dismal performance in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, which ended with the team rooted at the bottom of Group H with a paltry two points.

This resulted in the sacking of head coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojovic in April, last year and the elevation of his assistant Nshimiyimana to head coach position. 

Micho is now in charge of Uganda Cranes. 

But results have hardly improved under Nshimiyimana, with the team maintaining its poor run of results and failing to turn a corner. 

Under Nshimiyimana, Amavubi failed to qualify for the ongoing 2014 African Nations Championship (Chan) tournament in South Africa, and were eliminated from last year’s regional GOtv Cecafa Cup at the quarter finals stage after just one win in four games – against Eritrea. 

Noticeably, no country in the Eastern Africa is among the 21 nations which got byes into the group stage.

The teams that automatically qualified for the group stage include champions Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Tunisia, Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde and Togo. Others are Egypt, South Africa, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Senegal and Sudan.

The 30 nations in the second category will be split into four teams for the preliminary round from which top two sides in each group and the best third-placed team will join the 21 nations in the group stage. 

The 28 nations will subsequently be split into another seven groups. The top two in each pool and the best third-placed team will then qualify for the finals along with the hosts – Morocco. 

Meanwhile, unlike the past qualifiers which would practically span a whole year, the 2015 qualifiers will last just three months (September-November).

Meanwhile, the Caf meeting also announced that six countries have bid to host the 2019 Nations Cup and three for the 2021 edition. Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea, DR Congo, and Zambia all submitted dossiers for 2019.

The official candidates for the 2021 edition are Algeria, Ivory Coast and Guinea. Libya are still due to host the 2017 finals having swapped with South Africa, who held the event in 2013.

The Caf executive committee will decide the hosts for the two tournaments at their meeting in September 2014.