Ghana has drawn a bye for the 16th Africa Youth Championship preliminary qualifying round following Tuesday’s draw by the Confederation of African Football in Cairo.

The Black Satellites together with 15 other teams would skip the preliminary round matches which gets underway in April 2008.

Congo, Nigeria, Zambia, Gambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Cameroon, Benin, Morocco, Tunisia, Mali, Angola, Gabon, South Africa and Burkina Faso are other teams to draw a bye at this stage of the qualifiers.

New Black Satellites coach, Sellas Tetteh and his team would join the qualifying campaign at the first round stage as the Black Satellites play Angola, who also drew a bye later in June.

The first leg tie would be played in Accra on June 29. Rwanda would host the 16th Africa Youth Championship next year.

Rwanda would stage the Championship beginning January 18 till the February 1 2009.