World Soccer - UK (2022-06)

AFCON heroics...

Comoros are hoping

to reach only their

second-ever finals

Grudge match...

South Africa and

Morocco last met

at the 2019 AFCON

WORLD SERVICE

adds an edge to any confrontation

between Morocco and South Africa.

After both Comoros and the Gambia

made debut appearances at the Cup of

Nations finals in Cameroon at the start

of the year, there are only ten of the

54 African member countries yet to

compete in the finals.

Of them, Djibouti, Eritrea (who

withdrew before playing, yet again),

Seychelles and Somalia did not make it

past the preliminary rounds of matches

in March but Eswatini might fancy their

chances of a top-two finish in Group B

(with Burkina Faso, Cape Verde Islands

and Togo) and a first-ever place in the

finals.

The small southern African

kingdom have made major progress in

continental club football with top team

Royal Leopard reaching the group stage

of the African Confederation Cup where

they picked

up invaluable

experience, even

if they had to play

all their “home”

matches outside

of the country

because there

is no stadium

up to scratch

for the hosting

of internationals

inside of Eswatini.

That is also the

case for many

other African

countries as the

Confederation of

African Football

continues to crack

down on poor

facilities. As was the case with last year’s

World Cup qualifiers, many countries

will be forced to move their matches

to neutral venues, and will thus lose

the advantage of home stadiums

packed with their own fans.

and Zambia will qualify.
Zambia are among those who missed
out on the last finals, hosted at the start
of the year, and will be looking to make
amends. They should be too strong for
the other two in the group, even after
all the heroics that the tiny Comoros
Islands performed at the tournament
in Cameroon.
Angola, the Democratic Republic
of Congo and South Africa are other
countries seeking to restore battered
reputations.
Angola were drawn in Group E along
with top seeds Ghana, Madagascar and
the Central African Republic while the
Congolese, who have kept Hector Cuper
on as coach despite losing in the
March World Cup
play-offs, are
in Group I with
Gabon, Mauritania
and Sudan.
South Africa were
drawninGroupK
alongside Morocco,
a country with which
they have frosty relations.
South Africa were among the
handful of African countries who did
not support Morocco’s unsuccessful
bid to host the 2026 World Cup
finals, giving their vote instead to the
successful combined bid by Canada,
Mexico and the United States.
It was a political decision over the
disputed Western Sahara, the former
Spanish colony that Morocco annexed
in1975. South Africa, like many other
countries in the region with former
liberation movements now serving as
ruling parties, supports the so-called
Saharan Arab Democratic Republic,
established by the Polisario Front,
which is fighting Morocco over the
disputed territory.
This antagonism is unlikely to be felt
by the footballers themselves but always

GROUPA

Guinea-Bissau

Nigeria

Sao Tome e Principe

Sierra Leone

GROUP B

Burkina Faso

Cape Verde

Eswatini

Togo

GROUP C

Burundi

Cameroon

Kenya

Namibia

GROUP D

Egypt

Ethiopia

Guinea

Malawi

GROUPE

Angola

Central African Rep

Ghana

Madagascar

GROUP F

Algeria

Niger

Tanzania

Uganda

GROUP G

Congo

Gambia

Mali

South Sudan

GROUP H

Comoros

Ivory Coast

Lesotho

Zambia

GROUPI

DR Congo

Gabon

Mauritania

Sudan

GROUP J

Botswana

Equatorial Guinea

Libya

Tunisia

GROUP K

Liberia

Morocco

South Africa

Zimbabwe

GROUP L

Benin

Mozambique

Rwanda

Senegal

THE DRAW

The level of competition for the

World Cup-bound teams could

turn out to be far from taxing

and far from sufficient