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The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, a sharp increase from the 32 sides.
The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has released the qualification format for the 2026 FIFA World Cup set to be staged in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
In a statement issued on Thursday, CAF stated that the qualifiers would consist of nine groups, with each group containing six teams.
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The top nine teams from each group would secure direct qualification for the FIFA World Cup.
Africa’s football governing body has also offered an additional opportunity that will be used to determine the tenth representative from the continent.
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The four best second-placed teams from the groups would participate in a CAF playoff where the winners would feature in a FIFA Playoff to secure the tenth spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The qualifiers will begin in November 2023, where the first and second match days will be players, followed by the third and fourth match days in June 2024.
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From the fifth to the tenth matchday, games would be held up to October 2025 before proceeding to the playoff, where the tenth team will be determined on March 2026.
The official draw of the FIFA World Cup 2026 African Qualifiers will be on Wednesday 12 July 2023 in Cotonou, Benin the night before the 45th CAF Ordinary General Assembly.
The classification for the 54 nations participating in the draw will have teams divided into nine pots.
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Before the World Cup expansion, Africa's most teams at the World Cup was six in 2010 when South Africa (hosts), Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast competed.
Egypt was the first African side to play at the World Cup when they were present at the 1934 tournament in Italy.
It was not until 1970 that Morocco made a second appearance from the continent before Africa's slots were doubled to two in 1982, which became three in 1994 and five in 1998.
The draw pots:
Pot 1: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso
Pot 2; Guinea, Ghana, South Africa, DR Congo, Cape Verde, Mali, Zambia, Uganda, Gabon
Pot 3: Benin, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Namibia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau
Pot 4: Angola, Mozambique, The Gambia, Libya, Central Africa Republic, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Niger
Pot 5: Togo, Tanzania, Comoros, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Burundi, Liberia, Lesotho
Pot 6: Botswana, South Sudan, Sao Tome e Principe, Eritrea, Chad, Seychelles, Mauritius, Djibouti, Somalia.
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