The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has confirmed the details for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers draw.
In a statement, CAF said: “The official Draw of the FIFA World Cup 2026™African Preliminaries Qualifiers will be conducted on Thursday, 13 July in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
“The draw will be live on CAF digital platforms and CAFONLINE.com at 15h00 GMT (17h00 CAT) – a few hours after the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly that will also be held in Abidjan.
“For the Draw, the Member Associations of CAF will be divided into nine (9) Groups.
“Winners of each Group will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup™ 2026. The four best runners-up (from the Groups) will play in a CAF Play-Off tournament. The winner of the CAF Play-Off Tournament will play in the FIFA Play-off Tournament.”
Warriors to take part in the qualifiers
Zimbabwe will be in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers draw for Africa after FIFA lifted an international ban on the country on Monday.
The Southern African nation was suspended by the world football governing body in February last year for third party interference after the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) suspended the ZIFA executive, led by Felton Kamambo, for a litany of allegations, chiefly failure to account for public funds.
Seeding
The draw will feature six pots based on the June FIFA ranking.
Zimbabwe is in Pot 4, along with Mozambique, Togo, Libya, Central African Republic, Malawi, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Gambia.
Pot 1
Morocco (6), Senegal (3), Tunisia (6), Algeria (4), Egypt (3), Nigeria (6), Cameroon (8), Mali, Ivory Coast (3)
Pot 2
Burkina Faso, Ghana (4), South Africa (3), Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea
Pot 3
Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo Brazzaville, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Angola (1)
Pot 4
Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo (1), Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi, Libya
Pot 5
Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, Liberia
Pot 6
Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, Sao Tome e Principe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, Somalia
Draw procedure
-Teams will be drawn into nine groups of six teams and play home-and-away round robin matches from November 2023 to October 2025.
-Groups will consist of one nation from each pot.
-Nine group winners qualify for World Cup in Canada, Mexico and United States.
-Best four group runners-up enter play-offs and winners qualify for inter-confederation tournament.
Date of Qualifiers
Click here to watch the draw live with FIFA.
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