2026 World Cup: Qualifying draw day for Africa

All eyes are on Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, where the Confederation of African Football is holding its General Assembly. Originally scheduled to take place in Benin, it will now be staged in the host country of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. While the main item on the agenda is the renewal of a third of the governing body's executive committee, the wider public will be eagerly awaiting the ceremony scheduled for 15:00 GMT. That is when the draw for the 2026 World Cup qualifying groups will be made.

Read more on the subject: 2026 World Cup-Africa: national team coaches react to the qualifying system

54 nations are on the starting line and are about to find out their opponents in the campaign ahead as they try to qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the first to feature 48 teams, which will see Africa go from 5 to 9 representatives at the finals. And given this new World Cup format, CAF has also changed the qualifying arrangements, with a full draw this time, meaning no preliminary rounds.

9 groups, 9 direct qualifiers and 4 teams in the play-offs

Ahead of this draw, the pan-African body has unveiled the 6 pots, each made up of 9 teams. Pot 1 contains the highest-ranked teams in the FIFA rankings, pot 6 the lowest-ranked. One team from each pot will be drawn and placed in a group, so teams from the same pot cannot end up in the same qualifying group. Each group will therefore have 6 teams. Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali and Ivory Coast will be seeded and will therefore avoid each other on the road to the 2026 World Cup.

Also read: 2026 World Cup, 2023 Africa Cup of Nations: CAF's main announcements

On the qualifying arrangements, CAF has opted for the simplest format in practice. Once the groups are set, the winners of each group will qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup, making 9 teams. The four teams that finish as the best 2nd-placed sides will meet in a mini-tournament in the form of play-offs. The winner of that tournament will then go through to the intercontinental play-offs, where they will compete for a World Cup place against teams from other confederations.

• The pots for the draw for the 2026 World Cup qualifying groups

Pot 1: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Coast

Pot 2: Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea

Pot 3: Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia and Angola

Pot 4: Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi and Libya

Pot 5: Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana and Liberia

Pot 6: Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea and Somalia.