CAF reveal first round qualifying fixtures for 2022 FIFA World Cup
The Confederation of African Football has revealed the preliminary round fixtures of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. The draw was based on the FIFA rankings published in June 2019, in which the confederation's 26 top-ranked teams have been excluded from the preliminary round. As a result, 28 teams are paired to compete over two legs, with the 14 higher ranked teams playing the first legs away to their lower ranked opponents. The headline fixture sees Tanzania and Burundi, who participated in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations meet in an East African derby. CAF's first qualifying round fixtures for 2022 World Cup in full: Ethiopia vs Lesotho Somalia vs Zimbabwe Eritrea vs Namibia Burundi vs Tanzania Djibouti vs Eswatini Botswana vs Malawi Gambia vs Angola Liberia vs Sierra Leone Mauritius vs Mozambique Sao Tome e Principe vs Guinea-Bissau South Sudan vs Equatorial Guinea Comoros Islands vs Togo Chad vs Sudan Seychelles vs Rwanda The games will played between 2 to 10 September and the 14 winners will join the 26 highest ranked nations - who will then be divided into 10 groups of four teams each. At the end of the group stage, the ten group winners will be paired, based on ranking, to compete in a two-legged play-off round, with five higher ranked teams playing the first legs away. The final five teams will represent Africa at the World Cup to be hosted by Qatar in 2022.