Photo: Chris Ricco/Backpagepix

Nigeria's Emmanuel Emenike, 9, celebrates one of his goals during the 2013 Africa Cup.

Nigeria have been named among the top seeds for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations draw scheduled to take place next month. The seeding of the Super Eagles means Nigeria will avoid some of the tough countries on the continent during the qualifiers. Nigeria won the just concluded African Cup of Nations in South Africa for the third time after 19 years and also the Super Eagles jumped 22 places in the recent rankings released by FIFA from 52 to 30.

Also beaten finalist Burkina Faso have been seeded because of their exploits in the Nations Cup and finishing second. Among the countries seeded are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali. Forty-four teams are on the starting line of the qualifiers.

The countries were seeded in four pots of 11 teams each according to their current ranking. The last pot will be decided after the preliminary round of matches. The draw will take place on March 10 in Morocco during Caf General Assembly.

Seedings

Pot One: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo, Mali, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Zambia, Tunisia, Ghana.

Pot Two: Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic.

Pot Three: Ethiopia, Benin, Angola, Niger, Zimbabwe, Equatorial, Mozambique, Malawi, Burundi, Liberia, Sudan.

Pot Four: To be determined after the preliminary round