At a virtual executive committee meeting chaired by CAF president Patrice Motsepe, it was also decided that a draw to divide the 24 qualifiers into six groups will be held on June 25.

A total of 23 teams have confirmed their places at the continental showpiece.

The nations are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.

However, there is one spot left to be contested between the Benin Republic and Sierra Leone.

The match between the two countries in Freetown was called off after five key players from the visiting nation tested positive for Coronavirus. The game has been rearranged for the May 31-June 15th international window.

The two players spent several hours with the CAF medical team before joining their colleagues at the Helnan Palestine Hotel beach resort .

The AFCON has not been known to record any positive dope test in its previous 31 editions.

Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald reported that DR Congo could be kicked out of the tournament by CAF for trying to influence the result of the match against The Warriors on June 30 after a report by the Zimbabwe FA.

But the General Secretary of CAF, Mouad Hajji said that no official complaint has been received over the group stage game and the body isn’t carrying out any investigation.

Hajji said “At the level of the CAF, there is no suspicion, there is no hint of corruption about the Zimbabwe- DRC match in the third Group A match played on June 30, in Cairo. But if it turned out that there was anything and not only for this match, I remind you that our policy is a zero tolerance policy on corruption. As of today, there is no correspondence or issue.”

Ighalo scored the decisive strike four minutes later, the Shanghai Shenhua of China forward received an exquisite back – heeled pass from Ola Aina and and curled the ball home from inside the box .

A tweet from CAF reads “Seven goals to choose from , but only one got our goal of the day accolade – @ighalojude of @ NGSuperEagles,”

This announcement was made by the organizing committee of the continental mundial via the Confederation of African Football’s Twitter handle.

Femi will perform the official theme song of the tournament titled ‘Metgamaeen’ alongside Hakim (Egypt) and Dobet Gnahore (Ivory Coast)