Amaju Pinnick, says Nov FIFA Rankings will be used in seeding African countries during World Cup playoffs draw, meaning Nigeria may face Ghana or Cameroon
By Kehinde Okeowo
Contrary to initial speculations that a new FIFA ranking will be used in determining the seeding for the 2022 CAF’s World Cup play-off draw, which will be held on January 26.
The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has revealed that November FIFA Rankings will be used.
Amaju Pinnick made this known after the meeting of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Exco on Thursday.
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He said the body of CAF met and decided to stick with the November rankings rather than a new one or other considerations.
He said: “The CAF Executive Committee met and decided that the last FIFA Rankings in November will be used for the World Cup Draws.”
The November ranking will seed Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Nigeria, as the higher placed teams for the playoffs.
While the lower-ranked teams will be Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, and Congo DR.
This means Nigeria can still meet their West African neighbours and arch-rivals, Ghana and Cameroon.
It could also be pitched against the likes of Mali, which is another West African country but does not have the history of the rivalry between Nigeria and Cameroon or Ghana.
Other possibilities are matches with North African powerhouse Egypt, which parades the likes of Mohamed Salah or East African side, DR Congo.
