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The 54 CAF member nations will fight for nine-and-a-half slots for the 2026 World Cup.
The Confederations of African Football (CAF) has released the format and dates for the continental qualifiers of the 2026 World Cup.
CAF executive committee sat on Thursday, a day before the final match of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Algeria.
Nine-and-a-half
FIFA awarded at least nine slots to Africa for the expanded 48-team tournament that will be hosted jointly by USA, Canada and Mexico.
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The nine are assured, but Africa will be able to challenge for one extra slot through an intercontinental playoff.
First, CAF will create nine groups that will accommodate six teams making up the 54 members of the confederation.
The teams will play in a round-robin format with each honouring ten games; The winners from each group will qualify for the final tournament.
All 54 teams will be seeded in six different pots and a team will be selected per group in the descending order in that two teams from the same pot will not meet.
“The new format has been adapted in line with FIFA’s expanded FIFA World Cup format and will involve all the 54 Member Associations of CAF who will be divided into nine (9) Groups,” CAF announced.
Play-offs
The four best runners-up from the pools will play in a mini-tournament to get the best who will advance to play in the FIFA Intercontinental playoffs.
The tournament will be held from November 10th to 18th, 2025.
Six teams from different continents will take part in the FIFA playoff.
However, the six exclude Europe (UEFA) but North America will have the privilege of fielding an additional team as the host.
The two best-ranked nations from the six will be given a bye from the first round, where the remaining four will face each other in a knockout.
The two best-ranked will face the winners from the first-round knockout games and the winners will qualify.
The FIFA mini-tournament will be played in the host stadiums to test their level of preparedness. This tournament will take place in March 2026.
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