By Bunmi Ogunyale
Former African champions, Nigeria’s Super Eagles will today be drawn along with other countries ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023 qualifying series
The teams scheduled to participate in the draw, according to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will discover their paths for possible qualification for the competition when the draw is held in Johannesburg, South Africa at 5:30pm Nigeria time.
The 48 countries qualified to participate in the second round of the qualifiers have seeded into four pots based on the official FIFA ranking released on March 31, 2022.
The teams will then be drawn into 12 groups of four teams (Group A to L) with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the tournament to be played in the West African country.
Hosts, Cote d’Ivoire will also participate in the draw even though they have already secured the place in the tournament which means only one other team from the group will qualify for the competition.
Kenya and Zimbabwe, who have been suspended by FIFA from all football activities globally, will also be included in the draw despite their temporary bans.
However, if the suspension is not lifted two weeks before their first matchday of the qualifiers, both associations will be considered as losers and eliminated from the competition.
Consequently, their groups will be composed of three teams with the first and runner-up teams of those groups qualifying to the final tournament.