AFCON
CAF to conduct play-off draw during Afcon
The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) seated on Friday in Cairo has ruled to retain the original format adopted for the play-off for the 2022 African World Cup qualifiers.
The draw for the play-off will be held during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Two dates for the draw are proposed – 22 or 26 January.
The format will also be a two-leg format, contrary to speculations that CAF was considering a one leg format to be played in Doha.
The seeded five teams will start mission away from home and host opponents at home in the 2nd leg.
Under the helm of CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe, the Extraordinary General Assembly also discussed more issues related to African football, including the agenda of the African World Cup qualifiers and a date of the 2021 African Super Cup game set to be played in Qatar in February.
Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia won their respective groups to reach the final qualifying playoff phase for the 2022 World Cup.
According to the qualifying system, the 10 teams will be divided into 2 pots based on their FIFA ranking and a draw will be conducted for the five ties that are scheduled for March 2021.
On the current raking released on 19 November, the top five in Africa are Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Nigeria.
Another ranking is expected to be released on 16 December ahead of the draw to be conducted in January. Nigeria being the fifth ranked appear to be the only one at risk of being overtaken.
The five winners will qualify for the World Cup.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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