June draw for third round of African Zone qualifiers - RUSSIA 2018
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FIFA and CAF have determined that the draw for the third round of African Zone qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ will be held at CAF headquarters in Cairo on 24 June 2016.
This stage of the preliminary competition will involve 20 teams drawn into five four-team groups, with sides playing each other home and away on a round-robin basis. All five group winners will qualify automatically for Russia 2018.
This is the latest step in a qualifying campaign that began for Africa in October 2015 with 53 nations taking part. Round 1 was contested by the 26 lowest-ranked member associations, the 13 winners from which went on to a second stage against the confederation's remaining 27 nations.
Just 20 teams now remain from that second round, all of whom will be eagerly awaiting this Round 3 draw, the procedures for which - including pots and seeded teams - will be announced in due course.