CAF postpones 2022 World Cup Africa playoffs to January 2022
Africa’s football governing body, Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) has postponed the scheduled draws for the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs following a decision last Friday at its Extraordinary Assembly.
CAF had held its 13th Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) in Cairo, Egypt last Friday, November 26.
The Extraordinary General Assembly was chaired by its President, South Africa’s Dr. Patrice Motsepe.
Topics discussed included; Annual Revised Budget 2021-2022, Africa Football Infrastructure Development Program, FIFA International Match Calendar for Men and Women, including FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cups and the Pan-African Super League.
The meeting was then followed by a press conference addressed by Motsepe.
Announcing the change in date for the Africa playoff, Motsepe said the event initially scheduled for December 18, 2021 has been postponed to January 26, 2022.
According to CAF, the decision has been taken to be able to use the January 2022 rankings to seed the teams for the draw.
The decision says that the five top ranked teams at the time of the draw will be seeded and paired against the other five unseeded countries.
Already 10 countries including; Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, DR Congo, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Mali have booked their places after the group stages of the qualifications.
Ghana awaits the appeal to FIFA lodged by South Africa for confirmation of participation in the playoffs series.
South African Football Association (SAFA) had protested to FIFA the conduct of match officials from Senagal after it lost to Ghana by 0-1 in the final group game of the 2022 World Cup Africa qualifiers. The southern Africa nation is requesting a replay of the match.
FIFA was expected to rule on the appeal by last Friday but is yet make a decision.
