Giants Set To Roar • As Draw Comes Live Today

Gurus of African football will conduct the draw for Ghana 2008 this afternoon with all certainty that Ghana will avoid defending champions and record five times winners, Egypt, 2004 winners, Tunisia, and two-time winners and age-old major rivals, Nigeria.

The three, along with Ghana, have been seeded as top nations ahead of this afternoon's ceremony at the Accra International Conference Centre, with Ghana as head of Group A which will be based in Accra.

The elite group of seeded teams will be in draw Pot 1 from which Egypt, Tunisia and Zambia will share the 'headship' in groups B, C and D.

The seeding was reached after a lengthy meeting of CAF chiefs in Accra yesterday at which forum 1992 winners and runners-up in 2006, Cote d'Ivoire, four-time champions, Cameroun, 1976 winners, Morocco, and resurgent Senegal were put in Pot 2, sources had hinted the Graphic Sports.

South Africa who won the trophy on their debut appearance in 1996, Mali, Guinea and Zambia will be in Pot 3, while Benin, The Sudan, Namibia and Angola will be in Pot 4.

By the formula for the draw, no two teams from the same pot will meet at the group stage, meaning Ghana could avoid even the tough teams in the other groups.

The draw, to be supervised by CAF President, Issa Hayatou, and his lieutenants, will also bring major names in the African game under one roof in a rare convocation of football legends.

Former players Abedi Ayew Pele of Ghana, Roger Milla of Cameroun, Nigeria's Segun Odegbami and Liberia's George Oppon Weah will provide a special attraction to the purely ceremonial event which will effectively kick-off the continent's biggest sporting showpiece slated for Accra, Tamale, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi between January 20 and February 10.

On the fringes of this event will be a display of Ghana's culture and tradition to be staged through the display of traditional dances.

Story by Michael Quaye