CAF announces 2026 FIFA World Cup Draw

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.

According to FIFA, the four best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off 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.

Two of the six teams will be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams,” read a statement from FIFA.

Group A
Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti.

Group B
Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Tog, 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 Brazzaville, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea.

Group F
Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles.

Group G
Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia.

Group H
Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe.

Group I
Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad.

The 2026 World qualifying matches will take place from the 13th to the 21st of November 2023, the 3rd to the 11th of June 2024, the 17th to the 25th of March 2025, the 1st to the 9th of September 2025, the 6th to the 14th of October 2025, and lastly for the playoffs, from the 10th to the 18th of November 2025.