2020 World Cup play-offs: Pinnick confirms Super Eagles will be seeded

The president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has confirmed that the Super Eagles will be seededwhen the 2022 World Cup playoff draws are conducted in January next year.

Nigeria are one of the 10 group winners that qualified in the CAF section of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

The teams will be drawn against each other in a two-legged knockout match to determine Africa’s representative in Qatar 2022.

Initially, the draw for the playoffs was scheduled for December 18, with the top five ranked nations in the FIFA rankings seeded while the bottom five would be unseeded.

However, FIFA decided to postpone the draws to January 26, and there were fears that the Super Eagles could lose their top five rankings before then, which would make them unseeded.

But Pinnick has allayed all fears, saying it was agreed that the November rankings would be used to determine the seeded teams.

“The CAF Executive Committee met and decided that the last FIFA Rankings in November will be used for the World Cup Draws, Pinnick told the media on Thursday evening.

It means the Super Eagles will keep their seeded spot as they are currently ranked fifth on the African continent.