2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

Tournament details
Dates	15 November 2023 – 18 November 2025
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	103
Goals scored	243 (2.36 per match)
Attendance	835,981 (8,116 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mohamed Salah Trézéguet (5 goals each)
← 2022 2030 → All statistics correct as of 11 June 2024.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) is the African section of the qualification tournament for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico. A total of nine slots in the final tournament and one inter-confederation play-off slot are reserved for CAF teams.^[1]

Due to nine CAF teams now directly qualifying instead of five, the CAF Executive Committee announced a new qualification format on 19 May 2023. Teams were drawn into nine groups of six teams. The winner of each group will directly qualify to the World Cup, while the four best group runners-up will participate in play-offs to determine which team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.^[2][3]

• Group stage: Nine groups of six teams will play in a home-and-away round-robin matches. Group winners will qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
• Play-off stage: The four best group runners-up will be drawn into play-offs to determine the CAF representative at the inter-confederation play-offs.

Teams were drawn into nine groups of six teams and will play home-and-away round robin matches from November 2023 to October 2025. The winners of each group will qualify directly to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the four best group runners-up will advance to a play-off to determine which team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

The draw was held on 13 July 2023 at 15:00 GMT (UTC±0) in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.^[4][5] All 54 FIFA-affiliated football associations from CAF entered qualification, however Eritrea withdrew before matches began.^[6][7]

The draw pots were announced on 30 June (numbers in parentheses indicate FIFA Men's World Ranking at the time of the draw):^[8][9]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Egypt	4	3	1	0	11	2	+9	10	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Oct	2–1	Mar	Sep	6–0
2	Guinea-Bissau	4	1	3	0	3	2	+1	6	Possible second round		1–1	—	Mar	Sep	0–0	Sep
3	Burkina Faso	4	1	2	1	7	5	+2	5			Sep	1–1	—	2–2	Oct	Mar
4	Sierra Leone	4	1	2	1	4	5	−1	5			0–2	Mar	Oct	—	Sep	2–1
5	Ethiopia	4	0	3	1	1	4	−3	3			Mar	Oct	0–3	0–0	—	Mar
6	Djibouti	4	0	1	3	2	10	−8	1			Oct	0–1	Sep	Oct	1–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sudan	4	3	1	0	7	1	+6	10	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Mar	1–0	1–1	Mar	Oct
2	Senegal	4	2	2	0	6	1	+5	8	Possible second round		Sep	—	1–1	Mar	4–0	Oct
3	DR Congo	4	2	1	1	4	2	+2	7			Oct	Sep	—	1–0	Mar	2–0
4	Togo	4	0	3	1	2	3	−1	3			Sep	0–0	Oct	—	1–1	Mar
5	South Sudan	4	0	2	2	1	8	−7	2			0–3	Oct	Sep	Oct	—	0–0
6	Mauritania	4	0	1	3	0	5	−5	1			0–2	0–1	Mar	Sep	Sep	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Rwanda	4	2	1	1	3	1	+2	7	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	2–0	Oct	Mar	Mar	0–0
2	South Africa	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	7	Possible second round		Oct	—	2–1	Mar	Sep	3–1
3	Benin	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7			1–0	Mar	—	Sep	2–1	Sep
4	Lesotho	4	1	2	1	3	2	+1	5			0–1	Sep	0–0	—	Oct	Oct
5	Nigeria	4	0	3	1	4	5	−1	3			Sep	1–1	Oct	1–1	—	Mar
6	Zimbabwe	4	0	2	2	2	6	−4	2			Sep	Oct	Mar	0–2	1–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Cameroon	4	2	2	0	9	3	+6	8	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Mar	4–1	Oct	3–0	Sep
2	Libya	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7	Possible second round		1–1	—	Oct	Mar	2–1	Sep
3	Cape Verde	4	2	1	1	4	4	0	7			Sep	1–0	—	0–0	Mar	Oct
4	Angola	4	1	3	0	2	1	+1	6			1–1	Sep	Mar	—	Sep	1–0
5	Mauritius	4	1	1	2	3	6	−3	4			Oct	Oct	Sep	0–0	—	2–1
6	Eswatini	4	0	0	4	1	6	−5	0			Mar	0–1	0–2	Oct	Mar	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Morocco	3	3	0	0	10	1	+9	9	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Sep	Mar	2–1	Oct	Canc.
2	Niger	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6	Possible second round		Mar	—	0–1	2–1	Oct	Canc.
3	Tanzania	3	2	0	1	2	2	0	6			0–2	Sep	—	Oct	Mar	Canc.
4	Zambia	4	1	0	3	6	7	−1	3			Sep	Oct	0–1	—	4–2	Canc.
5	Congo	3	0	0	3	2	13	−11	0			0–6	0–3[a]	Sep	Mar	—	Canc.
6	Eritrea[b]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew		Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	Canc.	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ivory Coast	4	3	1	0	12	0	+12	10	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	Sep	Oct	Mar	9–0
2	Gabon	4	3	0	1	7	5	+2	9	Possible second round		Sep	—	Oct	2–1	3–2	Mar
3	Burundi	4	2	1	1	8	6	+2	7			Mar	1–2	—	Oct	3–2	Mar
4	Kenya	4	1	2	1	7	3	+4	5			0–0	Mar	1–1	—	Sep	Sep
5	Gambia	4	1	0	3	9	9	0	3			0–2	Oct	Sep	Mar	—	5–1
6	Seychelles	4	0	0	4	2	22	−20	0			Oct	Sep	1–3	0–5	Oct	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Algeria	4	3	0	1	8	4	+4	9	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Mar	Sep	1–2	Oct	3–1
2	Mozambique	4	3	0	1	6	5	+1	9	Possible second round		0–2	—	Sep	Oct	Mar	2–1
3	Botswana	4	2	0	2	6	5	+1	6			Mar	2–3	—	1–0	Oct	Mar
4	Guinea	4	2	0	2	4	4	0	6[a]			Sep	0–1	Oct	—	2–1	Mar
5	Uganda	4	2	0	2	4	4	0	6[a]			1–2	Sep	1–0	Mar	—	Sep
6	Somalia	4	0	0	4	3	9	−6	0			Oct	Oct	1–3	Sep	0–1	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Tunisia	4	3	1	0	6	0	+6	10	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	Oct	Sep	Mar	1–0	4–0
2	Namibia	4	2	2	0	6	1	+5	8	Possible second round		0–0	—	1–1	Sep	Mar	Sep
3	Liberia	4	2	1	1	5	2	+3	7			Mar	Oct	—	0–1	3–0[a]	Mar
4	Malawi	4	2	0	2	4	3	+1	6			0–1	Mar	Sep	—	Oct	3–1
5	Equatorial Guinea	4	1	0	3	1	7	−6	3			Sep	0–3[a]	Oct	1–0	—	Mar
6	São Tomé and Príncipe	4	0	0	4	1	10	−9	0			Oct	0–2	0–1	Oct	Sep	—

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Comoros	4	3	0	1	8	4	+4	9	2026 FIFA World Cup		—	1–0	Oct	Mar	4–2	Mar
2	Ghana	4	3	0	1	7	5	+2	9	Possible second round		Oct	—	1–0	Sep	4–3	Mar
3	Madagascar	4	2	1	1	5	2	+3	7			2–1	Mar	—	0–0	Sep	Sep
4	Mali	4	1	2	1	5	4	+1	5			Sep	1–2	Oct	—	1–1	3–1
5	Central African Republic	4	1	1	2	7	9	−2	4			Sep	Oct	Mar	Mar	—	1–0
6	Chad	4	0	0	4	1	9	−8	0			0–2	Sep	0–3	Oct	Oct	—

Neither CAF nor FIFA have made an official announcement on how Eritrea's withdrawal will affect the rankings of the group runners-up.

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	F	Gabon	4	3	0	1	7	5	+2	9	Second round
2	I	Ghana	4	3	0	1	7	5	+2	9
3	G	Mozambique	4	3	0	1	6	5	+1	9
4	H	Namibia	4	2	2	0	6	1	+5	8
5	B	Senegal	4	2	2	0	6	1	+5	8
6	C	South Africa	4	2	1	1	6	5	+1	7
7	D	Libya	4	2	1	1	4	3	+1	7
8	E	Niger	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6
9	A	Guinea-Bissau	4	1	3	0	3	2	+1	6

The four best group runners-up will be drawn into play-offs to determine the sole CAF representative at the inter-confederation play-offs. A total of three matches will be played.

The play-off winner will join one team each from AFC, CONMEBOL and OFC and two from CONCACAF in the inter-confederation play-offs. The teams will be ranked according to the FIFA Men's World Ranking, with the four lowest-ranked teams playing in two single-elimination matches. The winners will meet the two highest-ranked teams in another set of single-elimination matches, with the winners of these matches qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.^[12]

There have been 243 goals scored in 103 matches, for an average of 2.36 goals per match (as of 11 June 2024).

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

Below are full goalscorer lists for each group: