CAF unveils 2026 World Cup qualifying format
The Confederation of African Football has announced that for the 2026 World Cup, Africa will use a new format for qualification. Instead of three rounds, there will be a single stage that will take almost two years to complete.
The continent will have nine spots in the expanded 48-team tournament in North America, and the format will consist of nine groups where only the winner will qualify for the World Cup.
In the past, Africa had a three-step process for qualifying for the World Cup, starting with preliminary rounds for lower-ranked countries, followed by a group stage and two-legged play-offs to determine the five representatives for the finals.
However, for the 2022 tournament in Qatar, the entire process was condensed into six months. For the 2026 World Cup, it will take 23 months to determine the nine finalists. The draw for the nine groups will be held in Cotonou, Benin on July 12th, according to CAF.
It is expected that all 54 African countries will participate in the tournament. Each group will consist of six nations and will likely be seeded based on the latest FIFA rankings.
The qualifiers will begin in November and continue in June of the following year, with three separate windows in March, September, and October 2025 to conclude the groups. The top four runners-up from the groups will participate in a CAF play-off tournament in November 2025, and the winners will compete in the FIFA play-off tournament in March 2026 for a possible 10th African slot.
Six teams will participate in a play-off tournament to determine the last two spots for the World Cup. Each confederation, except Europe, will have one team, and an extra team from the host countries’ confederation (CONCACAF) will also participate.
The World Cup finals will take place in Canada, Mexico, and the US in mid-2026, and FIFA has already declared that the final will be held on July 19th.
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