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.