Eagles’ AFCON to determine W’Cup playoffs foe
CAF to use January ranking for seedings
The Super Eagles face the chance to drop out of the top five ranked teams in Africa before the playoffs for the 2022 World Cup playoffs.
The Confederation of African Football at its Extraordinary General Assembly held in Cairo, Egypt announced that the draws would be held on January 26.
CAF also announced that the FIFA ranking for the month of January will be used to determine the seeded teams for the playoffs.
The top five teams in the continent will be seeded and will face the non-seed teams in the two-legged fixtures.
The first leg fixtures will take place at the lower-ranked team’s home.
Qualified teams for the playoffs are Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Nigeria. While the lower-ranked teams are Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Congo DR.
Presently, ranked in the top five in the continent are Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria who are ranked 20th, 28th, 29th, 32nd and 36th in the world respectively.
With the January ranking set to be used, matches played at the Africa Cup of Nations which starts in Cameroon on January 9 will be put into account.
The Eagles are drawn in Group D alongside Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan.
By the time the draws are being held, Nigeria would have played all of their group games against Egypt (January 11), Sudan (January 15) and Guinea-Bissau (January 19).
If they proceed to Round 16, they would also have played their fixture for the round.
Egypt who are in Nigeria’s group at the AFCON are presently sixth in Africa and 45th in the world. Only 29 points separate both sides, with Nigeria on 1478.78 and 1449.51 points respectively.
The Eagles will therefore hope not to slip at the AFCON, as defeat against the Egyptians might see the North Africans overtaking them and pushing them out of the top five.
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