Sports
Nigeria,Others Seeded For AFCON Draw
Champions Algeria, as well as Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and hosts Cameroon have been named top seeds for tomorrow’s 2021 Africa Cup of Nations draw.
The ceremony billed for Yaounde Conference Centre will see the 24 participating teams zoned into six groups of four teams each as the competition gets underway in January 2022.
In picking the seeded countries, the Confederation of African Football put into consideration the August version of the Fifa rankings, the last rating released before the date of the draw.
Based on their status as hosts, the Indomitable Lions have been allocated in Pot 1, while the Desert Foxes, who emerged as champions of the 2019 edition, have been placed in Pot 2.
The Lions of Teranga, the Carthage Eagles, Super Eagles and the Atlas Lions were allocated Pot 3, Pot 4, Pot 5 ad Pot 6 respectively according to their respective rankings in descending order.
In addition, the six pots representing the groups will be labelled Groups A to F.
While Cameroon will be pre-assigned to position A1 as hosts, the remaining five teams in pot 1 will automatically be drawn into position 1 of each group (B to F). The same procedure will be repeated for the remaining pots.
The 33rd edition of the biennial African football showpiece was due to begin on January 9, 2021, however, it was pushed back to January 2022 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that crippled football-related activities.
“After consultation with stakeholders and taking into consideration the current global situation, the tournament has been rescheduled for January 2022,” Caf said in a statement.
“The date for the final tournament and the remaining matches of the qualifiers will be communicated in due course.”
Before the advent of Covid-19, the competition was moved from June-July 2021 dates to January due to the unfavourable climate in the West African country during the summer months.
Nigeria last won the championship in 2013 when they silenced Burkina Faso 1-0 in South Africa courtesy of a beauty from Sunday Mba.
Gernot Rohr’s team finished third at Egypt 2019 after defeating Tunisia in the third-place play-off at Al Salam Stadium, Cairo.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.