FIFA Arab Cup groups revealed: Qatar drawn alongside Tunisia
Fifa
Doha
The 23 nations vying to be crowned FIFA Arab Cup champions have learned their path to glory after the tournament draw was conducted at Doha's Raffles Hotel.
Drawn from across the Arab world, the 11 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nations and 11 Confederation of African Football (CAF) nations, along with hosts Qatar, will tussle for regional supremacy at the second edition of the tournament, set to take place from 1-18 December.
The 14 lowest ranked nations on the April edition of the FIFA Men's World Ranking will enter at the qualification stage, with the winners of those matches then joining hosts Qatar, defending champions Algeria and the
seven other highest-ranked nations in the final stage.
Those single-leg qualifiers, which will take place in Qatar on 25 and 26 November, are also seeded and are arranged on an inter-confederation basis. As such, the highest ranked AFC nation
plays the lowest ranked CAF nation and vice-versa and are as follows.
Qualifier OnecTypeface:> Oman (AFC #1) v Somalia (CAF #7)
Qualifier TwocTypeface:> Bahrain (AFC #2) v Djibouti (CAF #6)
Qualifier ThreecTypeface:> Syria (AFC #3) v South Sudan (CAF #5)
Qualifier FourcTypeface:> Palestine (AFC #4) v Libya (CAF #4)
Qualifier FivecTypeface:> Lebanon (AFC #5) v Sudan (CAF #3)
Qualifier SixcTypeface:> Kuwait (AFC #6) v Mauritania (CAF #2)
Qualifier SevencTypeface:> Yemen (AFC #7) v Comoros (CAF #1)
That septet then join the group stage with some headline match-ups revealed at the tournament draw. Among those are two of the semi-finalists from the previous edition four years ago, Qatar and Tunisia who will clash in Group A.
A pair of nations that caught the eye at the last FIFA World Cup, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, feature in Group B while Jordan, runners-up at the last edition of the AFC Asian Cup tussle with African royalty in the shape of Egypt in Group C.
Qatar and either Palestine or Libya will have the honour of opening the tournament, with the groups in full as follows.
Group AcTypeface:> Qatar, Tunisia, Syria or South Sudan, Palestine or Libya
Group BcTypeface:> Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman or Somalia, Yemen or Comoros
Group C: Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait or Mauritania
Group D: Algeria, Iraq, Bahrain or Djibouti, Lebanon or Sudan.
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