Nigeria has been seeded in pot number five for Tuesday’s draw of the 20022 Africa Cup of Nations, with Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal and hosts Cameroon taking the other slots, megasportsarena.com reports.
Heading into the pool that will determine groups for the competition slated to hold early next year in Cameroon, the Super Eagles will not play The Teranga Lions, Desert Foxes, Atlas Lions, Cartage Eagles and Indomitable Lions in the first round.
The ceremony, which is billed for Yaoundé Conference Centre, will see the 24 participating teams zoned into six groups of four teams each as the competition gets underway in January 2022, ahead of which Nigeria will be in Pot 5 for the draw.
This follows a confirmation by Confederation of African Football (CAF) that AFCON reigning African champions Algeria, as well as Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Cameroon are the seeds for Tuesday’s draw.
CAF’s statement further disclosed that The Lions of Teranga, the Carthage Eagles, Super Eagles and the Atlas Lions were allocated Pot 3, Pot 4, Pot 5 ad Pot 6 respectively according to their respective rankings in descending order.
While Cameroon will be pre-assigned to position A1 as hosts, the remaining five teams in pot 1 will automatically be drawn into position 1 of each group (B to F) and the same procedure will be repeated for the remaining pots.
In picking the seeded countries, CAF put into consideration the August version of the FIFA rankings – the last rating released before the date of the draw, with The Indomitable Lions allocated in Pot 1, while the Desert Foxes – who emerged as champions of the 2019 edition – are in Pot 2.
The 33rd edition of the biennial African football showpiece was due to begin on January 9, 2021, however, it was pushed back to January 2022 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that crippled football-related activities.
“After consultation with stakeholders and taking into consideration the current global situation, the tournament has been rescheduled for January 2022.
“The date for the final tournament and the remaining matches of the qualifiers will be communicated in due course,” CAF concluded.
