The Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Saturday announced the dates for the draws for both the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers and the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
The CAF Executive Committee picked the dates at its meeting on Friday in Douala, Cameroon.
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It said the draws for the qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON scheduled for Côte d’Ivoire will be conducted on Jan. 21 in Douala.
The preliminary round will be played by a knock-out system, on the basis of home and away matches.
It 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.
As for the 2022 FIFA World Cup scheduled for Qatar, the draws for the final round of the qualifiers will be conducted the following day, Jan. 22, also in Douala.
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, and the first leg matches will be played at the home of the lower-ranked teams.
According to the ranking published on Nov. 19 after the last round of the qualifiers, 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
