The Confederation of African Football has published the format for the continent’s team qualification for the next World Cup Qatar 2022, Reuters reports.
According to Reuters, qualification will be in three stages with two rounds of knockout ties on either side of the league competition.
In the first stage, 28 lowest-ranked sides on the continent will first contest a knockout round over two legs. The winners from this stage will then join the 26 highest-ranked sides in a 40-team in the second qualification round. The teams will be divided into 10 groups of 4 teams each and will be played out over an 18-month period.
Only group winners from the stage will advance to the third and final qualification round where they will be drawn into five playoff ties over two legs. The first leg is hosted by the lower-ranked country. But the winner of each qualifies for the 2022 fiesta.
The format is different from the 2018 finals in Russia where there were only two preliminary rounds to cut the field down to 20 countries, who then contested the five places for Africa in a group competition.
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