CAF World Cup 2026 Qualification format

[Robotnik]

Qualification format 9 groups of 6 teams. The winner of each group qualifies for the World Cup. Top four 2nd placed teams play a tournament to determine the winner that will play in an intercontinental playoff.

[Cito]

Would you be kind enough to post a link to this unless you are CAF

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Qualification format 9 groups of 6 teams. The winner of each group qualifies for the World Cup. Top four 2nd placed teams play a tournament to determine the winner that will play in an intercontinental playoff.

We will qualify easily with this format because all we have to do is beat New Zealand or Tahiti.

[Robotnik]

[Robotnik]

Qualification format 9 groups of 6 teams. The winner of each group qualifies for the World Cup. Top four 2nd placed teams play a tournament to determine the winner that will play in an intercontinental playoff.

We will qualify easily with this format because all we have to do is beat New Zealand or Tahiti.

Hopefully we make top 2 in the group. Because this one that we are struggling to beat Guinea Bissau..

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

Qualification format 9 groups of 6 teams. The winner of each group qualifies for the World Cup. Top four 2nd placed teams play a tournament to determine the winner that will play in an intercontinental playoff.

We will qualify easily with this format because all we have to do is beat New Zealand or Tahiti.

Hopefully we make top 2 in the group. Because this one that we are struggling to beat Guinea Bissau..

I already have GB winning the group if we’re grouped together. We own that 2nd spot.

[Bigpokey24]

Horrible format. I would have preferred 2 teams qualifying .

I guess top 9 will be seeds from the fifa rankings

[Bigpokey24]

The CAF Executive Committee announced a new African qualification format on 19 May 2023. Teams will be drawn into nine groups of six teams. The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup, while the second-placed teams will participate in play-off matches.[2]

Group stage: Nine groups of six teams. Group winners qualified for the World Cup finals.
Play-off stage: 4 teams (4 best group runners-up) will be drawn into play-off tournament.


The qualifiers will start in November of 2023. No knockout stages. All 54 teams in 9 groups. 12 matches

[Bigpokey24]

All our games must be in Uyo ...NFF better come correct.

[Robotnik]

Using the current FIFA rankings, the groups COULD look like this: (Chat GPT generated)

Group 1:

Morocco
Mali
Benin
Angola
Togo
Botswana


Group 2:

Senegal
Ghana
Equatorial Guinea
Mozambique
Tanzania
South Sudan

Group 3:

Tunisia
South Africa
Kenya
The Gambia
Comoros
Mauritius


Group 4:

Algeria
DR Congo
Congo
Libya
Rwanda
Chad


Group 5:

Egypt
Cabo Verde
Mauritania
Central African Republic
Ethiopia
São Tomé and Príncipe


Group 6:

Nigeria
Guinea
Namibia
Niger
Eswatini
Djibouti


Group 7:

Cameroon
Gabon
Madagascar
Zimbabwe
Burundi
Seychelles


Group 8:

Côte d'Ivoire
Zambia
Guinea-Bissau
Malawi
Liberia
Eritrea


Group 9:

Burkina Faso
Uganda
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Lesotho
Somalia

[vancity eagle]

The draw is THIS July and given that there is only 1 competitive match between now and then the 9 seeds seem a lock, other than Burkina Faso who are only 3 FIFA points ahead of Mali. Ghana is 30 points behind those and WILL be in Pot 2 and the team Pot 1 sides will want to avoid.

[Bigpokey24]

Using the current FIFA rankings, the groups COULD look like this: (Chat GPT generated)

Group 1:

Morocco
Mali
Benin
Angola
Togo
Botswana


Group 2:

Senegal
Ghana
Equatorial Guinea
Mozambique
Tanzania
South Sudan

Group 3:

Tunisia
South Africa
Kenya
The Gambia
Comoros
Mauritius


Group 4:

Algeria
DR Congo
Congo
Libya
Rwanda
Chad


Group 5:

Egypt
Cabo Verde
Mauritania
Central African Republic
Ethiopia
São Tomé and Príncipe


Group 6:

Nigeria
Guinea
Namibia
Niger
Eswatini
Djibouti


Group 7:

Cameroon
Gabon
Madagascar
Zimbabwe
Burundi
Seychelles


Group 8:

Côte d'Ivoire
Zambia
Guinea-Bissau
Malawi
Liberia
Eritrea


Group 9:

Burkina Faso
Uganda
Sierra Leone
Sudan
Lesotho
Somalia

interesting draws

[Robotnik]

The draw is THIS July and given that there is only 1 competitive match between now and then the 9 seeds seem a lock, other than Burkina Faso who are only 3 FIFA points ahead of Mali. Ghana is 30 points behind those and WILL be in Pot 2 and the team Pot 1 sides will want to avoid.

If the fear is drawing Ghana, you could still qualify as best 2nd place...

[Undertaker]

I like the format! Why fear Ghana? I saw them play in Doha, they were terrible!

[Bigpokey24]

We have to be 100% . No joking around. Every game in Uyo

[vancity eagle]

The draw is THIS July and given that there is only 1 competitive match between now and then the 9 seeds seem a lock, other than Burkina Faso who are only 3 FIFA points ahead of Mali. Ghana is 30 points behind those and WILL be in Pot 2 and the team Pot 1 sides will want to avoid.

If the fear is drawing Ghana, you could still qualify as best 2nd place...

Only 4 of the 9 2nd place finishers will advance. There is a chance you would miss out altogether and be eliminated.

[donadoni]

Remember when Africa only had 2 teams and we were happy when it was extended to 3.

Now we are sweating over how to be best runner up across 9 groups..how the mighty have fallen

We shall continue to siddon look sha

[Eaglezbeak]

CAF did what I expected but it’s probably because they want the smaller teams to remain active instead of eliminating them in a preliminary round.

[Bigpokey24]

Is the playoff between CAF and Concacaf?

I read 2 teams will qualify for the world cup from a 4 game tournament

2 will be seeded, and the other 4 will play 2 games ..No UEFA rep

[Bigpokey24]

The pots are here . We are in pot 1

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_FI ... tion_(CAF)

[Bigpokey24]

CAF did what expected but it’s probably because they want the smaller teams to remain active instead of eliminating them in a preliminary round.

I can bet my bottom $$$$ some of the smaller teams will pull out. Finally CAF WC qualifying groups are now looking like that of Europe, whereby England gets the faroe islands , Luxemburg etc

Every game matters now. the runners up in CAF could end up playing up to 15 matches before making it to the WC ...wow

There will be loads of games for many CAF teams, AFCON qualifiers : June and September. WC qualifiers starts in November..AFCON in January 24..oh boy ..then another AFCON qualifiers in 2024 and the 2025 AFCON in the Summer , More WC qualifiers etc ...

[packerland]

What do we have to do to end up in Group 9?

[akamoke]

If we draw Ghana again, Im confident we will qualify

Don't be surprised if we do because this CAF president likes regional representatives in World cups