17 May 2011
A record African entry for the 2014 World Cup finals has been announced and the qualification process will begin before the end of this year, the Confederation of African Football said.
Only Mauritania has failed to enter from Africas 53-member countries, who will each be attempting to fill one of the five places reserved for the continent at the tournament in Brazil.
For the first time in more than two decades, knockout matches will be used to determine the five African finalists, adding a more dramatic finish to the qualifying process towards the end of 2013.
There will be three stages of preliminaries in the African zone, CAF said after a meeting of its executive committee in Cairo.
The 24 bottom-ranked teams would play off against each other in 12 two-legged ties in November, immediately reducing the number of teams in the preliminary process.
The 40 remaining countries will then be divided into 10 groups for a group phase from June next year to September 2013.
The 10 group winners go onto compete in the final play-offs, which will be five two-legged ties and will determine who qualifies for Brazil.
The announcement of Africas preliminary process for the 2014 finals follows on similar announcements from Asia, Concacaf and Europe in recent months.
World Cup qualifying will get underway in the Caribbean on June 3, more than a month before the World Cup draw is conducted in Rio de Janeiro on July 30.
Asia has already held a qualify draw for the early stages of its preliminaries, which get underway on June 29.
2014 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFICATION
Stage 1
First Round for 24 bottom FIFA ranked teams
11/11/11 1st Leg
15/11/11 2nd Leg
Stage 2
Group phase 10 groups of 4 teams (12 teams from Stage 1 + 28 teams)
01-05/06/12 Match Day 1
08-12/06/12 Match Day 2
22-26/03/13 Match Day 3
07-11/06/13 Match Day 4
14-18/06/13 Match Day 5
06-10/09/13 Match Day 6
Stage 3
Play-off phase 5 matches Home Away 10 teams
11-15/10/13 1st Leg
15-19/11/13 2nd Leg
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