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The increase in Africa’s seats in the upcoming World Cup will not diminish the strength of the qualifiers, which are often described as the most difficult in world football, and which begin this week.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the African teams will begin their “exhausting” journey in the two-year qualifiers to determine the teams that will reserve the nine direct seats on the continent in the 2026 World Cup, which is hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams means increasing Africa’s places in the finals from 5 to 9, with the possibility of obtaining another place through the new play-off system.
Long travel distances between countries, limited and irregular flights, harsh climatic conditions, weak facilities, and a hostile culture towards visiting teams have earned the African qualifiers the title of the most difficult among the six continental confederations.
Portuguese Carlos Queiroz – who previously coached Colombia, Egypt, Iran, Portugal, South Africa, and now Qatar – once described the African qualifiers as a “nightmare.”
As for the 2026 World Cup, the 54 teams participating in the qualifiers will be divided into 9 groups, with the winner of each group guaranteed a seat in the finals.
The best 4 second-placed teams will participate in playoff matches to determine one team that will advance to a new world championship in the qualifiers, where one team from each continent will participate in a mini-tournament to determine the final two places in the World Cup.
13 African countries, starting with Egypt in 1934, participated in the World Cup finals, and Cameroon has participated the most, having participated 8 times.
Cameroon will begin its campaign with a home match in Douala against Mauritius next Friday before a more difficult trip to Libya next Tuesday in Group D.
Morocco – which last year became the first African and Arab team to reach the World Cup semi-finals – was supposed to start against Eritrea the day after tomorrow, Thursday, but the small East African country withdrew.
“Mama Africa”
As usual for “Mama Africa”, the reason for Eritrea’s withdrawal was not explained, but the isolated country located in the Horn of Africa has previously witnessed the defection of players and demands for political asylum when they traveled abroad to compete.
Morocco’s first match in Group E will be next Tuesday when it visits Tanzania, which it will also face in the African Cup of Nations in January in Ivory Coast.
Zimbabwe – which was excluded from the last qualifiers due to its failure to settle the contract of its former coach from another suspension, this time due to political interference in the management of the Football Association – returns to face Rwanda outside its homeland tomorrow, Wednesday, in the first match among 260 in the group stage of the African qualifiers that end in October. October 2025.
Zimbabwe has not participated in an international match for nearly two years, and is among 19 countries whose facilities were excluded from hosting international matches and were forced to move their home matches to a neutral venue.
Zimbabwe will remain in Rwanda after the opening match in Group C tomorrow, Wednesday, and will host Nigeria there next Sunday.
Other countries prohibited from playing on home soil are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan.
