Nigeria remains in Pot 2 for 2018 World Cup qualifiers after Fifa cancels it's 'special ranking'
The
Super Eagles were earlier placed in Pot Three while Egypt were placed in Pot
one after the Egyptian Football Association lodged a formal complaint to
express their discontent after being zoned in Pot Two despite being the fifth
best ranked team among the 20 teams.
But now, in a sudden turn of events, the governing body of football, FIFA, via a press release on Wednesday night invalidated the 'Special ranking' seeding and has now returned Nigeria to pot 2 alongside Egypt.
The four pots for the draw are as follows:
Pot 1: Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia
Pot 2: Cape Verde Islands, Egypt, Congo DR, Nigeria, Mali
Pot 3: Cameroon, Morocco, Guinea, South Africa, Congo
Pot 4: Uganda, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Gabon, Libya
Fifa also detailed the procedure for the draw ceremony billed for Cairo, Egypt.
“The teams in Pot 4 will
be drawn first. The team drawn first from Pot 4 will be placed in Group A, and
its exact position in the group will be determined by a ball drawn from a
second pot that will contain four balls with the position numbers 1-4,” it
stated.”
“The team drawn second
from Pot 4 will be placed in Group B, and its position in the group will also
be determined by a ball drawn from the second pot. The team drawn third will be
placed in Group C, and its position drawn from the second pot. The team drawn
fourth will be placed in Group D, and its position drawn from the second pot.
Finally, the team in the last ball in Pot 4 will be placed in Group E, and its
position will again be drawn from the second pot.
“This very same
procedure will then be applied for Pot 3, then for Pot 2, and finally for Pot
1. When the last ball containing the name of the final team in Pot 1 has been
drawn and its position in Group E has been confirmed by drawing the last
remaining ball in the second pot, the draw will be concluded.”
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