Africa to start 2006 campaign in October

Africa's challenge for the 2006 World Cup finals will start in October with the preliminary round of qualifiers, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in Cairo on Wednesday.

The draw will be made in Zurich in July and the 52 African countries have until June 15 to enter the competition.

As previously decided, the qualifiers for the African Nations Cup finals in Egypt in 2006 will also serve as qualifiers for the World Cup, to be held in Germany later the same year.

CAF said the five African countries that went to last year's World Cup finals - Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - would be exempt from the preliminary round.

Others, depending on the list of entrants, might also be exempt from the first stage but this would be decided on the highest placings in the last Fifa world rankings before the draw in July.

The preliminary round matches will be played over two legs in October and November. The winners will then join the exempt teams in five groups of six teams for the final round of qualifying matches.

The five group winners will qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals while the top three in each group go to the Nations Cup tournament in Egypt.