1.   Last night, when the Canadians, Americans and Australians were just arriving, it was still impossible to learn anything about the knockout format on Saturday.

2.   Richer associations favored a group stage in the UEFA Cup, but smaller associations backed a straight knockout format, he added.

3.   The tournament is being played as a knockout format for the first time.

4.   The traditional home-and-away knockout format has been scrapped in favour of single matches on the grounds of the countries with the lower African ranking.

5.   Only the first round will be played on a home-and-away basis before the tournament switches to a straight knockout format.