World Soccer - UK (2020-11)

It is an old cliché that six months in

sport can prove an eternity. In African

football it can be even longer.

That holds particularly true for the

World Cup qualifying process, which

was set to resume in November with

the start of the group phase, but

which has since been postponed

to nextJune.

The impact of the COVID-19

pandemic has been harshly felt

across Africa, with borders firmly

closed from the lockdown in March

right through towards the end of the

year, with none of the easing of travel

restrictions that was seen across the

European summer and allowed

European football to return to

action over a brief hiatus.

What it means for Africa, is that

there will likely be much change by the

time the 40 countries, who are still in

contention for the five African places

at the 2022 World Cup finals, return

totheracetoQatar.

They have been divided into ten

groups of four, with the ten winners

advancing to two-legged play-offs to

decide who qualifies. It is a return to

the qualifying procedure used for the

2014 World Cup in Brazil with the final

play-off round providing a dramatic

finale.

The delay until mid-2021 comes

after the Confederation of African

Football decided it wanted to complete

the qualifiers for the next Africa Cup

of Nations finals first. They would have

been done by now with the finals set for

January, but the coronavirus has moved

that all back12 months.

There are still four rounds of Nations

Cup qualifiers to be completed and

they have now been scheduled for

November and March – two matches

each per window.

The World Cup preliminaries can then

only resume in the next international

window inJune and are extended now

through to March 2022.

Africa kicked off the race for places

in Qatar in September 2019, with the

The wait goes on

African World Cup 2022 qualifiers delayed

Africa World Cup Qualifiers

MARK GLEESON

Underdogs...Angola

forward Gelson Dala

Waiting...No

qualifiers have

taken place since

January’s draw