The qualifying matches for the FIFA Arab Cup tagged “Qatar 2021” were decided on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s draw at the Katara Opera House in Doha.
Of the 23 nations involved, the 14 lowest-ranked teams according to the April edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings will participate in single-leg play-offs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tournament will be held later this year.
The play-offs were decided according to the rankings, as follows:
• Oman (FIFA World Ranking: 80) vs Somalia (197)
• Lebanon (93) vs Djibouti (183)
• Jordan (95) vs South Sudan (169)
• Bahrain (99) vs Kuwait (148)
• Mauritania (101) vs Yemen (145)
• Palestine (104) vs Comoros (131)
• Libya (119) vs Sudan (123)
The seven winning teams will join the nine highest-ranked teams who have already qualified for the tournament.
These are host nation Qatar (58), Tunisia (26), Algeria (33), Morocco (34), Egypt (46), Saudi Arabia (65), Iraq (68), the United Arab Emirates (73) and Syria (79).
The tournament will consist of a group stage and knockout rounds.
The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four, with the top two from each progressing to the quarter-finals.
Matches will be played at six FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tournament venues.
Tuesday’s draw will be made by four FIFA legends, namely Wael Gomaa (Egypt), Nawaf Al Temyat (Saudi Arabia), Haytham Mustafa (Sudan) and Younus Mahmood (Iraq).
They will do this along with FIFA’s Director of Competitions, Manolo Zubiria.
Meanwhile, only a limited number of officials will attend the draw, in line with Qatar’s COVID-19 protocols.
NAN reports that the FIFA Arab Cup is seen as an important opportunity to test operations and facilities ahead of Qatar 2022.
Both tournaments will take place in a similar timeslot, with the finals of each scheduled to take place exactly one year apart —— on Dec. 18, which is Qatar’s National Day.
