Dates for Africa's WC qualifiers out

FIFA has announced the dates for Africa's group phase of the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup, revealing Ghana's schedule for the matches which will start in October next year, GHANAsoccernet.com can exclusively reveal.

The Black Stars will start their group qualifying campaign in October 2016 and will end the six-match campaign in November 2017, Ghana's leading football news outlet can authoritatively reveal.

This comes after Ghana clinched their place on the last phase of the qualifiers on Tuesday when edging past Comoros after their 2-0 victory over the visitors in Kumasi following the goalless draw in the first leg last week.

FIFA insiders have told Ghanasoccernet.com the dates for the 2018 Russia World Cup qualifying group phase after the second round of the African qualifiers were concluded on Tuesday.

Ghana's national team will play just two matches next year before taking on their final four matches in 2017.

The Black Stars will start their qualifiers in October next year before playing their next match a month later in November 2016.

The Ghana national team will resume the qualifiers in August 2017 and play the remaining matchesin four successive months.

The 20 teams who have qualified will be divided into five groups of four with the group winners qualifying for the tournament in Russia.

Below is the full schedule of the dates for the matches:

First round: October 3, 2016

Second round: November 7, 2016

Third round: August 28, 2017

Fourth round: September 2, 2017

Fifth round: October 2, 2017

Sixth round: November 6, 2017