Friday, April 1, 2016

2018 FIFA World Cup: CAF 3rd round seeding

The draw will take place on 24 June 2016 and will most likely use the June 2016 FIFA ranking (published on 2 June 2016).

Currently, there are no matches scheduled involving African teams until the June 2016 FIFA ranking deadline. Of course, this will most likely change, but until then, here's a quick look at what happened last month.

Looking at the sims I ran in February, Cape Verde Islands gloriously imploded, making way for Egypt to grab an unexpected Pot 1 slot.

Congo DR and Guinea outperformed former AFCON winners Nigeria and Cameroon and managed to climb to Pot 2 at their expense.

Morocco's 2 wins vs. Cape Verde Islands saw them climb out of Pot 4, with Uganda dropping from Pot 3.

Algeria              786
Côte d'Ivoire        740
Ghana                728
Senegal              676
Egypt                631
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Tunisia              629
Cape Verde Islands   620
Congo DR             596
Congo                583
Guinea               573
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Mali                 569
Cameroon             566
Morocco              557
Nigeria              548
South Africa         529
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Uganda               500
Burkina Faso         479
Zambia               447
Gabon                395
Libya                293

Pot 1: Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Egypt
Pot 2: Tunisia, Cape Verde Islands, Congo DR, Congo, Guinea
Pot 3: Mali, Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa
Pot 4: Uganda, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Gabon, Libya


About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

7 comments:

  1. Pot 2 and 3 need to switch. There are better teams in pot 3 than 2.

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  2. Friendlies must be played no later than 29 May to have any effect. It doesn't matter if a friendly is played on a non-FIFA date. As long as it's considered an "A" match, it will affect the ranking.

    Egypt have less points because their win vs. Chad was removed from the calculation after Chad withdrew.

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  3. As an Egyptian, I must say it is stunning to see them as likely Pot 1 holders. A month or two ago it was looking impossible...

    If we do end up top seeded, that would be a remarkable achievement, and there would be even more pressure to qualify. But I think we can do it.

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  4. One thing's for sure: all the groups will be very tight! I think Algeria and Cote d'Ivoire are the most likely to win any tough groups though. I'd love to see Egypt finally qualify again - they've had so much quality and success come through their ranks since 1990 and surely deserved to be there once or twice.. Most notably 2010 lol...

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  5. CIV playing a friendly against Hungary on May 20.

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  6. Morocco is back. To be in the same pot as Cameron and Nigeria is good to avoid them in qualifying group. Good luck

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