Super Eagles drops to second seed ranking at AFCON 2023 draw

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Nigeria’s Super Eagles  may have finished Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series on high note, scoring the highest number of goals as well as producing the top scorer, the team will not be seeded when the draw is conducted in Abidjan on 12 October.

The quarterly FIFA Ranking released on Thursday put the Super Eagles as number six in Africa.

Although six teams will be seeded to top each of the the groups, Nigeria as sixth team has to be sacrificed as the host team is an automatic seed.

Cote d’Ivoire is ranked ninth and will be seeded in place of Nigeria. Also dropping out as top seed is Cameroon, four-time African champions.

In the latest,  ranking, Cameroon places seventh and will thus be a second seed, like Nigeria.

Top seeds are thus: Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. The seeding and pots are:

POT 1

• Cote d’Ivoire
• Morocco
• Senegal
• Tunisia
• Algeria
• Egypt

POT 2

• Nigeria
• Cameroon
• Mali
• Burkina Faso
• Ghana
• DR Congo

POT 3

• South Africa
• Cape Verde
• Guinea
• Zambia
• Equatorial Guinea
• Mauritania

POT 4

• Guinea-Bissau
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Angola
• Gambia
• Tanzania