Egypt head seeds for final-phase draw

African champions Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria have been named as the top seeds for next week’s draw for the final phase of African qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup finals, FIFA announced.

They will each head one of the five groups into which the last 20 qualifiers looking to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa will be placed at the draw in Zurich on Oct. 22.

The seeds have been determined by the latest FIFA rankings, which means 2006 World Cup finalists Togo are on the bottom tier of the seedings, with Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Sudan.

The winners of the five groups will qualify for the finals and the top three in each group go through to the 2010 African Nations Cup finals, to be played in Angola six months before the World Cup.