By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The Executive Committee of the Confederations of African Football (CAF) has announced the dates for both FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers and TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draws at its meeting held in Yaounde, Cameroon ahead of the Sunday’s 33rd African Cup of Nations (AFCON) kick off.
The Committee approved that the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draw will be conducted on 21 January 2022 in Douala, Cameroon.
According to CAF highest policy making organ, the preliminary round of Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers will be played by a knock-out system: home and away matches and will include the lower ranked teams in accordance with the FIFA rankings.
The teams qualified from this round will reach the group stage composed of 48 teams.
Meanwhile, the FIFA World Cup, Qatar 2022 African Qualifiers last stage draw will be conducted the following day, 22 January 2022 in Douala, Cameroon.
The 10 qualified teams will be divided into two levels based on the official FIFA ranking, published in November 2021.
The five highest ranked teams will play against the five least ranked teams (the first leg will be played at home of the lower ranked teams).
According to the ranking published on the 19th of November 2021 after the last round, the distribution of the teams on the two pots shall be as follows:
Level 1: Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria
Level 2: Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali and DR Congo
