The Super Eagles of Nigeria are among the 10 top seeded teams for next month’s 2022 World Cup qualifying draw after they finished among the top 10 countries by the latest FIFA Rankings.
Nigeria finished 2019 as the third ranked team in Africa behind Senegal and Tunisia.
The other top seeded teams are 2019 AFCON champions Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali and DR Congo. These 10 teams will thus head the 10 qualifying groups.
The draw will be staged on January 21 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, from 6pm. The ceremony will see 14 winners from the first round join 26 top-seeded teams including Nigeria to form 10 groups of four.
This second round, which will be played on home and away basis, will begin in March 2020 and conclude in October 2021.The 10 winners of these groups will then advance to the third round scheduled for November 2021.
They will be drawn against each other with the five eventual winners progressing to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which will be played between November 21 and December 18, 2022.
THE FULL SEEDINGS:
Pot 1: Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Pot 2: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Guinea, Uganda, Cape Verde, Gabon, Benin, Zambia, and the Congo.
Pot 3: Madagascar, Mauritania, Libya, Mozambique, Kenya, Central Africa, Zimbabwe, Niger, Namibia, Guinea-Bissau.
Pot 4: Malawi, Angola, Togo, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Djibouti.
