AFCON 2017: Eagles draw Pharaohs, Taifa Stars

Nigeria’s Super Eagles are pooled in Group G of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers to face the Pharaohs of Egypt.

The Eagles, who were seeded during yesterday’s draw, also have Taifa Stars of Tanzania and Chad to contend with for the sole ticket of the group.

The 2013 AFCON champions are ranked sixth by CAF owing to their co-efficient gathered between 2012 and 2015 editions of the African tournament including qualification series.
CAF also included points for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which notched up Nigeria’s total to 33.5, which is 18.5 below number ranked nation on the continent, Cote d’Ivoire.

Ghana, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Mali are the other nations ahead of Nigeria in the CAF ranking released before yesterday’s draw.

Interestingly Nigeria and Egypt, who are favourites in this group, failed to qualify for the last edition of the AFCON in Equatorial Guinea earlier this year.

The group winners and the two best second-placed teams will join hosts Gabon at the 2017 AFCON finals.

CAF named Gabon as the hosts, beating rival bids from Algeria and Ghana in a vote by its executive committee at the end of the General Assembly in Cairo.

Gabon replaces war-torn Libya, who withdrew last year as 2017 hosts because of the civil conflict raging in the country.

It will be the second time that the country will stage the finals after co-hosting the 2012 edition with neighbours, Equatorial Guinea.

CAF has already designated the hosts of the 2019 (Cameroun), 2021 (Cote d’Ivoire) and 2023 finals (Guinea).

The qualifiers for the 2017 AFCON starts in June this year.