In a revised fixture list obtained from the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) memo on Wednesday, the group stage qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will start in June 2021 and run through five months.
The group stage qualifiers were due to begin in October, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that there were drastic changes to the continent’s football calendar.
The preliminary World Cup competition will now be played in four windows next year, with two games each.
The pool stages start from May 31 to June 15, and continue in the FIFA windows on August 30 to September 7 and October 4 to 12.
The 10 pool stage winners will then advance to a play-off round where the victors will earn a place in Qatar. Those matches will be played between November 8 to 16.
The 10 pool stage winners will then advance to a play-off round where the victors will earn a place in Qatar. Those matches will be played between November 8 to 16.
The October window this year will be kept free for national teams to use for friendlies if conditions allow for them, before match days three and four of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations preliminaries will be staged from November 9 to 17.
The final two rounds of those qualifiers, where the top two teams in each of the eight pools qualify for the postponed finals in Cameroon in early 2022, are scheduled to be played in March 22 to 30 next year.
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