CAF President Patrice Motsepe smiles during a news conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. AFP
According to CAF’s official website, Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Qualifiers draw will be held on 21 January 2022 in Douala, Cameroon.
Meanwhile the draw of the final round of the 2022 World Cup African qualifiers will be conducted a day later at the same place.
“The preliminary round of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers 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,” reads a statement by CAF.
“The teams qualified from this round will reach the group stage composed of 48 teams,” the statement added.
Under the guidance of Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, Egypt secured a place in the final qualifying round of the World Cup qualifiers, which will be played next March in a two-legged form against another group leader.
Egypt will be eyeing a second successive World Cup appearance at the 2022 finals in Qatar.
Regarding the World Cup final qualifying round in March, CAF said that the ten 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),” CAF explained in Saturday’s statement.
According to the latest FIFA ranking, Egypt came at Level 2 alongside Cameroon, Ghana, Mali and DR Congo, meanwhile Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria came at Level 1.
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