AHEAD WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS With FIFA Arab Tourney, Egypt Tipped to Edge Nigeria from Top-Five

Femi Solaja

Nigeria’s administrative competence may play Super Eagles out of Top Five of African standing and ultimately drop out of being seeded for the final 2022 FIFA World Cup Playoffs scheduled for March next year.

Now, what may be Nigeria’s loss, may turn out the gain of Egypt.

Although Nigeria is currently rated 36th in the World and 5th on the continent with 1478.78 points, Egypt’s Pharaohs who are 45th globally and 6th in Africa may leapfrog Super Eagles when they perform well in the FIFA Arab tournament starting in Doha, Qatar from tomorrow.

The Egyptians are guaranteed of at least three matches at group phase of the Arab tournament at a time Nigeria is not faced with any match aside meaningless warm-up match before departure to AFCON in Cameroon.

Nigeria will go head long with Egypt in the opening group match at AFCON before the draw for the playoffs.

As at the last count, I6 Countries from across the Arab world are participating in this FIFA.

The event offers a great opportunity for competitors and spectators alike to experience the spirit of Qatar and the iconic stadiums that will host the World Cup in November 2022.

Nigerian football fans were delighted that Super Eagles retained their fifth spot in November FIFA ranking which was a privileged to be seeded for the final

qualifying match.

But at the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) last Friday in Cairo ruled to retain the original format adopted for the play-off for the 2022 African World Cup qualifiers.

The draw for the playoffs will be held during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Two dates for the draw are proposed – 22 or 26 January.

The format will also be a two-leg format, contrary to speculations that CAF was considering a one leg format to be played in Doha.

The seeded five teams will start mission away from home and host opponents at home in the 2nd leg.

Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia won their respective groups to reach the final qualifying playoff phase for the 2022 World Cup.

According to the qualifying system, the 10 teams will be divided into two pots based on their FIFA ranking and a draw will be conducted for the five ties that are scheduled for March 2021.

On the current ranking released on 19 November, the top five in Africa include; Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Nigeria.

Another ranking is expected to be released on 16 December ahead of the draw to be conducted in January. Nigeria being the fifth ranked appear to be the only one at risk of being overtaken.

At the FIFA/Arab tournament, Egypt will square up against Lebanon tomorrow at the Al Thumana Stadium while Algeria will play Sudan.

Three days later, Egypt will play Sudan before its group match on the 7th against Algeria at the Al Janoub Stadium.

Already in the race for top five placement, Morocco overtook Tunisia for second position but none of the four top placed teams are threatened by those from sixth position above.

The five winners will qualify for the World Cup.