Anxiety as 2018 FIFA World Cup draw holds in Cairo

The draw ceremony for Africa’s final round of
qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup
competition will hold at CAF Headquarters, 6th
October City, Egypt today.

Following the decision of the FIFA Emergency
Bureau for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers on
Wednesday evening, which stated that “protests
from several associations” had necessitated a
review of the entire situation related to the
seeding, the ranking announced by FIFA on 7th
June 2016 will be adhered to.

This means that the pots remain:
Pot 1: Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal,
Tunisia

Pot 2: Cape Verde Islands, Egypt, DR Congo,
Nigeria, Mali

Pot 3: Cameroon, Morocco, Guinea, South Africa,
Guinea

Pot 4: Uganda, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Gabon,
Libya
After Egypt protested its placement in Pot 2,
Nigeria also fired a protest, stating categorically
why she deserved to be in Pot 1 ahead of Egypt
and Tunisia.

In the FIFA letter of Wednesday, 22nd June,
signed by Deputy General Secretary Marco
Villiger, the FIFA Emergency Bureau stated, inter
alia:

The FIFA letter dated 5th April 2016 did not
specify that the ranking would be calculated on
8th, 9th, or 10th June 2016 but that it would be
released around those dates. The special ranking
that was released on 8th June 2016, with the
date 7th June 2016, fully served its essential and
unique purpose of integrating all the official CAF
AFCON qualifying matches that were played up
to 5th June 2016 ahead of the draw.

This ranking – 7th June 2016 – remains thus
valid for the 3rd qualifying round draw.

Therefore, the FIFA letter dated 15th June 2016
suggesting a ranking on 21st June 2016 shall be
deemed null and void. Please take note that this
decision is final and binding and not subject to
appeal, as per article 3, paragraph 4 of the
Regulations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.