The group stages for the qualifying games of the 2022 Qatar World Cup have been postponed, FIFA announced earlier on Thursday.

“Fifa can confirm that in conjunction with Caf and taking into consideration the current disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to ensure optimal playing conditions for all teams, it has been decided to postpone the African qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021,” football’s world governing body posted on its website.

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“The qualifiers are now scheduled to take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.”

40 African nations are involved in this qualifying stages in 10 groups of four team each.

However, jut five tickets are granted to the African country.