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Nigeria’s national team received a line of life in its attempt to reach the 2026 World Cup, which will take place in Canada, USA and Mexico, reports Owngoalnigeria.com.
Nigeria currently faces a difficult time to end as winners of their group, which will automatically guarantee a place in the tournament next year and even a second place that will see them go to a playoff between Confederation does not look bright.
Only the four best group runners-up will be carried out in Play-Offs to determine the CAF representative in the play-offs between Confederation.
The player of the play-off will join a team each of AFC, Conmeboly and Ofc and two of Concacaf in the play-offs between Confederation.
The teams will be classified according to the FIFA World Male ranking, with the four lower classification teams playing in two unique elimination matches. The winners will meet the two best classified teams in another set of unique elimination matches, with the winners of these matches that classify for the World Cup.
It is in this area that a potential escape has been opened for Nigeria to sneaked into the group’s withdrawal from the group and, even without a ball kicking, leaving the short group for one, which means they have five teams instead of six.
What FIFA and another confederation have done in situations like this is to deduce points of the lowest team in each group, to compensate for the lack of numbers in the other group.
An example cited in the history of CAF / FIFA was in the qualification of the 2010 CAF World Cup, with the same Eritrea withdrawing from their group and because other groups had full size, when the runners were classified (for the stage that selected “best finalists”), the results against the fourth team of the group were excluded for the groups that had the full number of equipment.
That meant that every second place was compared with the same number of games (excluding the games against the lowest team in groups that still had full membership).
CAF and UEFA have also used this same method in their regional tournaments in case the withdrawal of a team produces an imbalance in the group compared to other groups.
UEFA used the same method in the 2016 Eurocup qualifiers, when a classification group (Group 1) had five teams, while others had six. The UEFA rule for the “best third place team” was to rule out matches against the sixth team in the groups of six teams, so each team compared with the same number of games.
UEFA also used it in the 2022 World Cup qualification groups when they were unequal size (five against six). To sow the ten runners-up in the Play-Off’s draw, UEFA ruled out the results of the runner-up against the sixth team before applying points, goals difference, etc.
There is also an oldest precedent of coffee (Africa): in the second round of the 2010 CAF, after Eritrea retired (and Ethiopia was excluded), the ranking of CAF finalists ignored the results against the fourth team, so the comparisons were even between groups
Then, in practice, the super eagles who have already lost four points against the current table of the table in their group are probably cast before the teams of other groups, which chose maximum points against the lower oppositions.
However, the Super Eagles must end second for this to come true, and it is only possible if they win their two remaining games in the qualifiers.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
