Sports Briefs
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AS expected, Super Eagles of Nigeria will have to take a thorny path to qualify for the next World Cup finals in Russia when the draw ceremony for the African qualifying tournament holds later this month in Cairo, Egypt. Based on the latest FIFA ranking, Nigeria will be in pot B alongside the Pharoahs of Egypt. This means the team will automatically avoid the side that knocked them out of the African Cup of Nations tournament next year.
Aside Nigeria and Egypt, other countries in the same pot are; Cape Verde, DR Congo and Mali hence the teams will avoid each other. However, based on the latest FIFA ranking, the top five teams are automatically in pot A namely: Desert Foxes of Algeria, Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, Black Stars of Ghana, Teranga Lions of Senegal and Carthage Eagles of Tunisia. The seeding process was released on Thursday, June 9, by FIFA.
Nigeria will therefore face one of these top seeds in their quest to qualify for a sixth World Cup finals. The draw ceremony will come up in Cairo on June 24, at the CAF secretariat in Egypt. In the other Pots, Indomitable Lions of Cameroun, Atlas Lion of Morocco, Syli Star of Guinea, Bafana Bafana of South Africa and Congo are in Pot 3 while Cranes of Uganda, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Gabon and Zambia occupy the last pot.
The 20 teams will be divided into five groups of five teams and will square up on a home and away league basis with the overall winners qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The qualifiers will run from October till November 2017.
— Jun 20, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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