The six top seeds include Morocco, who created history at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar by becoming the first semi-finalists from Africa.

Nigeria is among the second seeds while South Africa has had to settle for a place among the third seeds for the draw in Abidjan, the Ivorian economic capital.

Add surprise 2021 Cup of Nations quarter-finalists Gambia from the fourth seeds and it would be a striking “group of death,” the term given to particularly tough sections.

Nigeria, three-time winners of the premier African football competition, and former champions South Africa were unlucky not to be seeded higher.

The Super Eagles lie sixth in the continental rankings and, ordinarily, would have been a top seed, avoiding Morocco, title-holders Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt in the group stage.

But host countries not only automatically qualify for the two-year tournament, they are also always among the first seeds.

To accommodate the ninth-ranked Ivory Coast, sixth-placed Nigeria had to give way and now share second-seed status with Cameroon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

South Africa had been ranked above DR Congo for some time but, in the rankings that decided the seedings, they were placed one place below the Congolese.

It was an ironic change of positions as South Africa defeated DR Congo in a friendly match just a couple of days before the rankings were released.

Released Thursday, December 22, FIFA’s ranking shows Morocco is in the 11th spot ahead of Switzerland, the US, Germany, Mexico, and Uruguay.

With a 108.85 score, Morocco is also the first-best team in Africa.

The ranking recognizes Morocco’s uplifting and brilliant performances during the 2022 World Cup, where the Atlas Lions triumphed to secure the fourth spot.

The Atlas Lions made history after qualifying for the semi-finals. The qualification made Morocco the first African and Arab country to make it so far in World Cup history.

FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino told the press that Morocco “played great, great football, and we must praise Morocco’s performance.”

Infantino emphasized that “Morocco represented two continents” as they represent both the Arab world and Africa.

“They [Morocco] qualified for the semi-finals, which some said was surprising, but only if you didn’t know the experiences of the players and the coach.”

During the World Cup run, Morocco secured brilliant victories against Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Canada.

Morocco only lost two matches during the World Cup tournament: France-Morocco and Morocco- Croatia  matches.

On Tuesday, Morocco received a homecoming ceremony fit for heroes. Thousands of fans from across Morocco lined Rabat’s streets to welcome the Atlas Lions.

Despite its win in the World Cup final, Argentina secured the second position in the FIFA ranking. Brazil tops the list, while France comes third followed by Belgium, England, the Netherlands, and Croatia, respectively.

Italy is the eighth best team in the world, followed by Portugal, Spain, and Morocco.

The three-time African champions remain unmoved in the latest Fifa rankings released by the world football governing body on Thursday, December 10, 2020. Gernot Rohr’s Super Eagles garnered a total of 1474 points to stay as the fifth-best team on the continent behind Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

Nigeria played only four games l this year- The first match ended as a 1-0 defeat to Algeria in an international friendly. Before a 1-1 draw against Tunisia in another international warm-up game staged at the Jacques Lemans Arena, Austria.

Senegal is ranked first on the continent and 20th in the world with 1558 points.

Africa CDC gave the update on its official Twitter account on Friday morning.

According to the tweet, “COVID-19 had killed 2,074 people, while 18,636 patients have recovered.’’

Further breakdown on the Africa CDC COVID-19 dashboard also showed that South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Nigeria top the list of countries with the highest reported Coronavirus cases and deaths on the continent.

It s aid, “#COVID19 update in Africa (As of 8 May, 2020, 9 am East Africa Time).

“53 @_AfricanUnion Member States reporting 54,027 cases, 2,074 deaths, and 18,636 recoveries.’’

InsideOjodu reported that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed 381 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing to 3526 the number of confirmed cases in the country as of Thursday night.