CAF Completes Draw For First Round Of Qualifiers For 2020 FIFA World Cup

The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has today held the draw for the preliminary round of the qualifiers for the 2020 FIFA World Cup expected to be staged in Qatar.

At a short ceremony in Cairo earlier today, the 28 lowest-ranked nations on the continent have been paired against each other to feature in the first round of the qualifiers.

SEEDING
Pot 1: Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Togo, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho

Pot 2: Comoros, Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mauritius, Gambia, South Sudan, Chad, Sao Tome e Principe, Seychelles, Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea

CAF arrived at the pairings below at the end of the draw:

• Ethiopia v Lesotho
• Somalia v Zimbabwe
• Eritrea v Namibia
• Burundi v Tanzania
• Djibouti v Eswatini
• Botswana v Malawi
• The Gambia v Angola
• Liberia v Sierra Leone
• Mauritius v Mozambique
• Sao Tome e Principe v Guinea-Bissau
• South Sudan v Equatorial Guinea
• Comoros v Togo
• Chad v Sudan
• Seychelles v Rwanda

Both the first and second legs of the fixtures will be played in November and December of this year. The teams that manage to qualify will be entered into another draw that features the byes.

BYES
Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Guinea, Cape Verde, Uganda, Zambia, Benin, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Madagascar, Niger, Libya, Mauritania, Kenya, Central African Republic.

Ten (10) teams will progress from that stage and move into the final round to battle for 5 slots allotted to Africa for the next World Cup.