NFF president Amaju Pinnick has said the Super Eagles are among the top seeds for the 2022 World Cup playoffs in March after the CAF executive committee decided the November 2021 FIFA Ranking will be used to determine the top five teams.
This decision by CAF therefore means that the Super Eagles will be one of the top five seeds for the World Cup playoffs.
It means they will avoid Senegal, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in the final decider for places at Qatar 2022.
Their likely opponents will therefore be Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, DR Congo or Mali.
The seeded Eagles will also play the first leg of the playoffs away from home.
“At the CAF executive level what we have decided is the last ranking that was done in November will be used for the draw, so Nigeria remain fixed to fifth spot,” Pinnick announced.
Initial reports were that the January 2022 FIFA Rankings would be used for the seeding for the playoffs and in that case Egypt could topple the Super Eagles for a top seed place based on their results at the FIFA Arab Cup and the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon.
The draw for the playoffs will be staged on either January 22 or 26, 2022.
The playoffs will be played between March 21 and 29, 2022.
