AFCON 2023: Super Eagles Preliminary Round Opponents Emerge Today

Nigeria will know their opponents in the Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series when the draw is made in Randburg, Johannesburg this evening, Megasportsarena.com reports.

The Super Eagles, who exited the last tournament in the Round of 16 and missed out of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, will hope to compensate the Nigerian fans with an Afcon ticket.

They are among the seeded teams and will join other top nations to compete for the 15 slots at stake.

According to the Confederation of African Football, the 48 countries qualified to participate in the second round of the qualifiers have been seeded into four pots based on the official FIFA ranking released on 31 March, 2022.

The teams will then be drawn into 12 groups of four teams (Group A to L) with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the tournament to be played in the West African country.

Hosts Cote d’Ivoire will also participate in the draw even though they have already secured the place in the tournament which means only one other team from their group will qualify for the competition.

Kenya and Zimbabwe, who have been suspended by FIFA from all football activities globally, will also be included in the draw despite their temporary bans.

However, if the suspension is not lifted two weeks before their first matchday of the qualifiers, both associations will be considered as losers and eliminated from the competition.

Consequently, their groups will be composed of three teams with the first and runner-up teams of those groups qualifying to the final tournament.

As a result of that decision, Kenya and Zimbabwe cannot be drawn in the same group in order to avoid having one group with only two teams in case the suspension on both associations is not lifted.

In the draw to be conducted by the CAF Director of Competitions Nigeria’s Samson Adamu and assisted by African football legends Lucas Radebe of South Africa and Ivorian Solomon Kalou, the first ball will be drawn from Pot 4 and will go to position A4.

The procedure will be repeated for the remaining teams of Pot 4 who will go to positions B4, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, H4, I4, J4,K4 & L4 according to the draw order.

The same procedure as above will be repeated for Pot 3, Pot 2 and finally Pot 1.

The qualifiers will start in June 2022.