CAF release dates for 2022 World Cup and 2023 Afcon draw

At its meeting, the Confederations of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee announced the dates for the draw for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers and the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers.

The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draw will take place in Douala, Cameroon on January 21, 2022.

The preliminary round 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.

The FIFA World Cup, Qatar 2022 African Qualifiers 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