More locations for Africa on the 2026 World Cup finals has not lessened the depth of the qualifying course of, typically described because the hardest in world soccer, and which kicks off this week.
Qualification for the event in Canada, Mexico and USA has begun in Asia and South America already, and Africa starts its two-year qualifying campaign on Wednesday to find out who will fill the 9 automated locations for the continent on the occasion.
The enlargement of the World Cup from 32 to 48 groups means Africa’s quota of finalists is elevated from 5 to 9, with the potential for one other place via a brand new playoff system that has been launched.
The lengthy distances to journey, mixed with poor and rare flight connections, excessive weather conditions, Spartan amenities and a tradition of hostility in direction of visiting groups have earned Africa’s qualifying course of a popularity for being the toughest of the six continental confederations.
Carlos Queiroz, who coached Colombia, Egypt, Iran, Portugal, South Africa and now Qatar, as soon as described the African preliminaries as “a nightmare”.
For the 2026 World Cup, the 54 African entrants had been divided into 9 teams by CAF with solely the winners assured of a spot on the finals.
The 4 best-ranked runners-up will take part in a playoff to find out one crew that can go onto the new-style intercontinental playoff event, during which one facet from every continent will meet in a mini event to find out the final two locations within the World Cup line-up.
A complete of 13 African nations, beginning with Egypt in 1934, have performed on the World Cup finals. Cameroon are essentially the most frequent members with eight finals appearances. They start their campaign with a house match in Douala on Friday in opposition to Mauritius earlier than a extra testing journey to Libya subsequent Tuesday in Group D.
Meanwhile Morocco, who final yr turned the primary African nation to succeed in the World Cup semi-finals, had been supposed to begin in opposition to Eritrea on Thursday, however the small east African nation has withdrawn.
No cause was given however the hermit nation on the horn of Africa has beforehand seen gamers defect and search political asylum once they have gone overseas to compete.
Morocco’s first match in Group E is subsequent Tuesday’s go to to Tanzania, who in addition they face in January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ivory Coast.
Zimbabwe, kicked out of the final qualifiers as a result of they’d didn’t settle the contract of a former coach, return from one other ban, this time for political meddling within the operating of their soccer affiliation, to face Rwanda away on Wednesday within the first of the 260 African group qualifiers which finish in October 2025. Zimbabwe haven’t performed a full worldwide in virtually two years and are amongst 19 nations whose amenities have been condemned as less than worldwide customary and been compelled to maneuver their house video games to a impartial venue.
As a outcome, they’ll keep in Rwanda after Wednesday’s opening Group C match and host Nigeria there on Sunday.
The others banned from enjoying at house are Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tome e Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
CAF 2026 World Cup qualifying teams
Group A: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
Group B: Senegal, DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan
Group C: Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
Group D: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius
Group E: Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea* (withdrew on 10 November)
Group F: Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles
Group G: Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia
Group H: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe
Group I: Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad
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