Futsal prep on course

The continent’s football governing body, Confederation of African Football (CAF), said this week the draw for the tournament would take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on October 9.

The participating teams are Angola, host nation Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea Equatorial, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

The competition will take place from December 15 to 27, 2010. The last competition played in 2008 in Libya was won by the host country. It served as a qualifying tournament for the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the CAF Executive Committee said countries that do not qualify for the African Nations Cup scheduled for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012 will play a first round eliminatory, with direct elimination, with a view to finding 15 teams that will play in Libya in 2013. The period from January 15, 2012, to February 15, 2012, was chosen for this first round.

If necessary, CAF said, if the number of teams involved exceeded 45, a preliminary round would be organised. In this case, the criteria for the teams to undergo a preliminary round will depend on FIFA rankings.

The second round of qualifiers , also through direct elimination, will witness the 15 qualified teams of the first round qualifiers to play against the 15 teams (except Libya, host country of the 2013 edition and by consequence already qualified) that would have participated at the 2012 CAN, after complete draws.

If the Libyan team qualifies for CAN 2012, the 15 other teams will directly play the second qualifying round of the 2013 CAN. If Libya does not qualify for the CAN 2012, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea will play home and away play-off and the winner will participate in the second round qualifiers .

The Executive Committee emphasised that these modalities were exceptional.

The qualifiers for the CAN 2015 will go back to its normal system, mini-championship by groups.