THE Confederation of African Football (Caf) has confirmed that Mauritania have pulled out of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Mauritania’s withdrawal means a change to the system of qualifying. The group winners will still go through automatically as well as the second-placed team in the group made up of five countries.

The final two spots will be filled by the two best runners-up from the ten remaining groups.

Mauritania’s scheduled opponents, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Namibia, have been left in a group of three.

The best runners-up will be determined after excluding results of games played against the teams which finish in fourth place.

Qualifying for the 2012 Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea begins on the weekend of September 4-6.

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