World football governing body FIFA have turned around to cancel their “special ranking” for Africa ahead of Friday’s draw for the qualifying tournament for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
In a correspondence to various national federations dated June 22, FIFA stated that the first ranking released earlier this month remains valid and that a FIFA letter dated June 15 which announced a new “special ranking” was now null and void.
Subsequently, both Nigeria and Egypt will now remain in Pot 2 and will therefore avoid themselves in tomorrow’s draw in Cairo.
Egypt, for one, have argued they ought to be one of the five top seeds and so in Pot 1 ahead of Tunisia.
They appeared to have won this argument going by the “special ranking” which then put them in Pot 1 and dropped Tunisia to Pot 2.
Only for FIFA to now reverse themselves provoking various allegations in Egypt.
The draw will be staged in Cairo by 4pm Nigerian time tomorrow.
The seedings now to be used in Friday's draw
Pot 1 - Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia
Pot 2 - Cape Verde, Egypt, DR Congo, Nigeria, Mali.
Pot 3 - Cameroon, Morocco, Guinea, South Africa, Congo.
Pot 4 – Uganda, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Gabon, Zambia.
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It wasn’t expected for Switzerland to win yesterday's game. Embolo 's goal came as a nice surprise. It is good to see Switzerland scoring a victory in this match and adding 3 more points for their rankings. I am sure Ottmar Hitzfeld will have to review the team's offensive and defensive strategy for the next match against Hungary.
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