The Confederation of African Football (CAF) emergency committee has confirmed that the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup have been shifted to June next year and will be completed in a five-month period for a place in Qatar.
The preliminary World Cup competition will now be played in four windows next year, with two games each. The pool stages start from May 31-June 15, and continue in the FIFA windows on Aug. 30-Sept. 7 and Oct. 4-12.
The 10 pool stage winners will then advance to a play-off round where the victors will earn a place in Qatar. Those matches will be played between Nov. 8-16.
Meanwhile, the AFCON qualifiers, which was shifted because of the COVID-19 pandemic will resume proceedings from Nov. 9-17 this year. CAF says the October window for this year will be kept vacant for National teams to use for friendly matches if conditions allow.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria are at the top of the standings in Group L of the AFCON 2021 qualifiers after defeating Benin Republic and Lesotho in their first two matches.
