Bright Stars, the national football team | File photo

South Sudan will play Seychelles in the preliminary round of the 2021 African cup of nations in October according to fixtures released yesterday by the confederation of African football (CAF).

It’s the second time South Sudan plays in the preliminary round, in 2017 the Bright Stars eliminated Djibouti with a 6-2 aggregate win.

South Sudan plays Seychelles in a two leagued encounter with South Sudan hosting the first league between 7 and 9 October and the return league a week late.

According to CAF new setting the low ranked teams play each other in a two leagued tie with the winner joining the high ranked teams in the group stages of the qualifiers.

The win between South Sudan and Seychelles will join group B which includes countries such as Uganda, Burkina Faso and Malawi.

South Sudan failed to make it to this year’s tournament finishing bottom of their group which contained eventual winners Burundi, Gabon and Mali.

The team only managed no point in the last qualifiers and managing one goal in the process.

With the new coach Ashu Cyprian Besong at the helm for the bright stars it will be seen if South Sudan will make it to the group stages for the qualifiers.

The former Cameroon U20 coach was appointed by South Sudan football association last month.

He is currently preparing the team for the 2020 CHAN qualifier with Burundi next week.

At the release of the fixtures, CAF president Ahmed Ahmed confirmed the 2021 tournament will be hosted by Cameroon.

Cameroon where to host the 2019 AFCON but were stripped off due to security concerns and Egypt were awarded the hosting right.