CAF revamps 2026 World Cup qualifiers, opening group stage to 54 member nations

May 19 - The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced a change in format for the African World Cup qualifiers for the 2026 finals following an executive committee meeting in Algiers, Algeria.

“The new format has been adapted in line with the expanded FIFA World Cup format and will involve all 54 member associations of CAF which will be divided into nine (9) groups,” CAF said.

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“The winners of each Group will automatically qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The four best runners-up (of the Groups) will play in a CAF Play-Off tournament. CAF) will play in the FIFA Play-off Tournament."

The new format is a major overhaul of the current qualifying route which sees CAF's 28 lowest-ranked teams compete in a knockout round to qualify for the group stages, where 40 teams are split into 10 groups. Of these 10 groups, the group winners would each meet in all five qualifiers to determine Africa's representatives.

With the expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, CAF will get nine guaranteed places, and an additional nation could qualify via the FIFA Play-Off tournament with a team from each of the six FIFA confederations and another from the host federation Concacaf. In the end, two teams from this knockout tournament will also book their ticket to the World Cup.

No African team had passed the last eight of the tournament until Morocco beat Portugal in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup in Qatar to create history. In the end, they finished fourth losing the playoff for third place to Croatia, 2-1.

CAF also announced that the official draw for the Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d'Ivoire will take place on October 12. The tournament will be played early next year.

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