The draw for the African qualifiers for the World Cup finals, scheduled to take place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2026, was held on Thursday in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. The draw resulted in Egypt and Morocco being placed in "complicated groups," while the draw was somewhat favorable to Tunisia and Algeria. The results of the draw are as follows:
- Group 1: Ethiopia - Djibouti
- Group 2: Sudan - South Sudan
- Group 3: Lesotho
- Group 4: Mauritius
- Group 5: Eritrea
- Group 6: Seychelles
- Group 7: Somalia
- Group 8: São Tomé
- Group 9: Chad
A total of 54 teams will participate in the African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, including 10 Arab teams: Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, Comoros, Sudan, Djibouti, and Somalia.
These 54 teams will be divided into six levels based on the latest FIFA rankings issued last June, and they will be distributed into nine groups of six teams, with the winner of each group qualifying directly for the expanded finals that will include 48 teams instead of 32. The four best teams that finish second in their groups will compete in a continental playoff against five teams in an international playoff to secure an additional spot in the World Cup.
Here are the six levels:
- Level 1: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Coast
- Level 2: Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea
- Level 3: Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Angola
- Level 4: Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi, Libya
- Level 5: Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, Liberia
- Level 6: Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, Somalia.
