The Super Eagles of Nigeria will face South Africa, Zimbabwe, Benin Republic, Lesotho and Rwanda in Group C to qualify for the 2026 World Cup to be hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.
The 54 countries in Africa knew their fate at the preliminary draws organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The three-time African champions who missed out on the World Cup held in Qatar last year will have Bafana Bafana as their main contender to stay on top in Group C.
According to FIFA, all CAF countries were seeded in six pots, drawn into nine groups with six teams in a group and the matches will be played over ten match days in the next two years.
The 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.
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 (Concacaf).
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.
Qualifiers and the playoffs will commence from November 3, 2023, till November 18, 2025.
Since the expansion of the World Cup to 48, Africa will have nine automatic slots at the World football tournament in 2026.
The World Cup will begin from 11 June 2026 to 19 July 2026.
The GROUPS
GROUP A: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
GROUP B: Senegal, DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan
GROUP C: Nigeria, South Africa, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
GROUP D: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius
GROUP E: Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger Republic, Eritrea
GROUP F: Cote 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 & Principe
GROUP I: Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad
