Africa's Draw for World Cup 2022 Qualifiers to be Held in January

Fifa announced Wednesday the details and dates of the draw of  2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

In a statement, Fifa said that the draw is set to be held on January 21 in Cairo, Egypt.  The CAF draw for the second round of the preliminary competition will witness the 14 winners of round 1, joining the 26 top-seeded African teams.

"The FIFA World Cup 2022 will also take centre stage in Africa on 21 January, 19:00 local time, at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Cairo with the CAF draw for the second round of the preliminary competition," the statement read.

Egypt’s national team did not participate in the preliminary round as CAF announced earlier that the 26 highest ranked teams, under the FIFA rankings.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers format for Africa is as follows:

1. The 14 winners of round one will join the 26 highest-ranked teams.

2. Group stage: The fourteen teams which qualified from the preliminary stage will join the 26 exempted teams

3. The forty teams will be pided into 10 groups of 4 teams.

4. The winners of the groups will be advanced to the knock-out stage.

5. The ten teams will be pided into two levels based on the FIFA ranking. The 5 highest ranked teams will face the lowest-ranked ones.

6. The winners of the first and second legs on aggregate will qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 is scheduled to take place in Qatar between 21 November and 18 December 2022.