The 2022 FIFA World Cup saw Five teams fly the colours of Africa; Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia, with Morocco making it all the way to the Semi Final in what was an impressive run in the tournament.
Nigeria failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2022 but would be hoping to get a ticket for the 2026 edition. Nigeria has participated in the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, the first being in 1994 where they reached the second round. The sixth and most recent appearance was the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia where they crashed out in the group stage.
The 2026 World Cup will see the number of African Teams increase by four, taking the tally to Nine. FIFA’s decision to increase Africa’s direct tickets from five to nine is to allow more African representation in the prestigious tournament.
The Draw of the FIFA World Cup 2026™ African Preliminaries Qualifiers will be held today, 13 July 2023, by 15:00 hrs in Côte d’Ivoire.
The 54 CAF nations will be seeded in six pots and then drawn into nine groups, each consisting of six teams. The nine groups will play in a home and away, round-robin, format with each of the group winners qualifying automatically for the FIFA World Cup 26™.
The four best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA playoff tournament.
The FIFA play-off tournament will feature one team from each of FIFA’s six confederations, except UEFA, plus one additional team from the host confederation (Concacaf).
The 54 nations are seeded in six pots:
Pot One: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire
Pot Two: Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cabo Verde, Congo DR, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea
Pot Three: Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Angola
Pot Four: Mozambique, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi, Libya
Pot Five: Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, Liberia
Pot Six: Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, Somalia
The qualifiers will take place over ten matchdays during the next two years: 13-21 November 2023; 3-11 June 2024; 17-25 March 2025; 1-9 September 2025; 6-14 October 2025; 10-18 November 2025 (Play-offs).
Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting information.