{"id":52325,"date":"2023-07-11T11:08:24","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T11:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw"},"modified":"2023-07-11T12:25:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T12:25:49","slug":"world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","title":{"rendered":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overcome to qualify for the next edition in Canada, Mexico and the USA.<\/p>\n

A seeded draw in Abidjan will divide the 54 hopefuls into nine groups of six with all the first-placed teams securing places at the 2026 finals.<\/p>\n

The best four runners-up then go into play-offs and the winners join five other teams in an inter-confederation tournament with two World Cup places up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Were an African team to fill one of those slots, the continent will have a record 10 representatives at the 2026 finals, up from five in Qatar last year.<\/p>\n

Morocco, the first semi-finalists from Africa, Cameroon, Senegal and Tunisia featured at the 2022 tournament and are among the nine first seeds for the draw.<\/p>\n

But the fifth African participants, Ghana, miss out and, along with eight other teams including South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have to settle for being second seeds.<\/p>\n

Seeding for the Abidjan draw is based on the June FIFA world rankings and four-time World Cup qualifiers Ghana lie 11th.<\/p>\n

Mali were the big winners in the rankings, climbing two places to eighth in Africa after a 2-0 victory over Congo Brazzaville in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.<\/p>\n

Winning gave the Malians top-seed status and relegated Burkina Faso, 3-1 losers to Cape Verde in another Cup of Nations match, to second seeds.<\/p>\n

Avoid giants <\/b><\/p>\n

The advantage of being among the nine top seeds is avoiding the giants of African football like Morocco and Senegal, last-16 losers to England in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Lacking injured star Sadio Mane, Senegal did not match pre-tournament expectations, losing to the Netherlands in a group game and being outplayed by England.<\/p>\n

But the disappointing showing by the Cup of Nations title-holders was forgotten as Morocco made history.<\/p>\n

They topped a group including 2018 runners-up Croatia and star-stacked Belgium, then ousted Spain and Portugal before offering brave resistance before falling to France in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Morocco made history despite a late change of coaches with Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic axed and Walid Regragui taking over having led Wydad Casablanca to the Caf Champions League title.<\/p>\n

After Morocco finished fourth in Qatar, France-born Regragui predicted Africa would end the European-South American monopoly of the World Cup “in 15 to 20 years”.<\/p>\n

All 54 CAF member nations have officially entered the draw, inclduing Zimbabwe whose suspension by Fifa since February 2022 due to government interference in football was lifted on Monday.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overcome to qualify for the next edition in Canada, Mexico and the USA. A seeded draw in Abidjan will divide the 54 hopefuls into nine groups of six with all the first-placed teams securing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-52325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nWorld Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\"},\"wordCount\":430,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\",\"name\":\"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw - Uganda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/\",\"name\":\"Uganda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw - Uganda","description":"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw","og_description":"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","og_site_name":"Uganda","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw","datePublished":"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw"},"wordCount":430,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Uganda","uganda"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw","name":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw - Uganda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg","datePublished":"2023-07-11T11:08:24+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-11T12:25:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Shock 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco and 53 other African nations will discover on Wednesday who they must overco ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/07\/sm_1689062002.180812.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/world-cup-history-makers-morocco-the-star-attraction-at-draw#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"World Cup history makers Morocco the star attraction at draw"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/","name":"Uganda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}