West Ham’s Saïd Benrahma, Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani, who plays as a striker for French club Lyon – have been named for Algeria upcoming Group A second-round World Cup qualifiers next month.

Algerian national team head coach Djamel Belmadi has named a 25-man list for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup Group A qualifiers against Djoubti and Burkina-Faso.

The reigning African champions will kick off their World Cup campaign against Djibouti on Thursday, 2nd September, at the Stade du Chahid Mustapha Tchaker de Blida, in Algeria before taking on Burkina Faso at the Stade in Marrakech, Morocco, five days later.

AC Milan Ismaël Bennacer, Sofiane Feghouli, who plays for Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray, and Hicham Boudaoui are among the six midfielders named.

Meanwhile, the other teams alongside Sierra Leone in African Cup of Nations Group E, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea, also kicking their Qatar 2022 campaign.

Equatorial Guinea in Group B will commence the race to Qatar against Tunisia before hosting Mauritania on 3rd and 7th September, respectively. While the Ivory Coast take on Mozambique and Cameroon in their opening two matches of the qualifiers.

In another development, some English Premier League clubs are in confrontation with Fifa after announcing that they will not release 60 players called up for internationals next month in countries on the UK red list for travel.

As a result, 15 World Cup qualifiers in South America and some parts of Africa are now in serious doubt.

It is expected that a similar confrontation for the international break in October unless an agreement can be reached.

However, the Confederation of African Football, CAF, has pleaded to the British authorities on behalf of its Member Associations, African players and fans, for the British Government to urgently provide the required exemptions to enable African players to compete for their countries in the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™️ qualifiers.

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