By Danesius Marteh
The 2026 World Cup qualifiers are largely over in Africa with the nine automatic winners known following matchday 10 on 14 October.
Algeria, Cape Verde (debutants), Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia won their respective groups but how were the four best runners-up selected?
All the countries, who responded to the Confederation of African Football (CAF)’s expression of interest to participate in the qualifiers, were divided into nine groups of six teams with the winners of each group automatically qualifying for the finals.
The rules also provide that “four teams in all the groups who finished second with the highest points” will qualify for a playoff tournament.
Eritrea withdrew six days before the qualifiers started in November 2023, leaving Group ‘E’ with Morocco, Niger, Tanzania, Zambia and Congo.
On 14 March 2025, CAF sent out a circular to general secretaries of member associations introducing an amendment to the rules that says points accumulated by the second-placed team from the bottom team in each group at the end of the qualifiers will be deducted in order to determine the four best placed-teams across the nine groups to cover-up for Eritrea’s withdrawal.
What did mean?
Senegal won Group ‘B’ with 26 points and DR Congo finished second with 22 points but they lost six points for beating bottom side South Sudan home and away.
In Group C, South Africa won the group with 18 points and Nigeria finished second with 17 points but lost only two points to bottom side Zimbabwe after the two legs ended 1-1.
Cape Verde qualified with 23 points and Cameroon were runner-up with 19 points in Group D but lost four points to Eswatini.
Ivory Coast won Group F with 26 points and Gabon finished second with 25 points but six points were deducted from Gabon, who beat bottom team Seychelles home and away.
So the four best-placed teams are Gabon (19 points), DR Congo (16 points), Cameroon (15 points, 9 goals) and Nigeria (15 points, 7 goals).
Nigeria will meet Gabon while Cameroon host DR Congo in a mini tournament in Morocco on 13 November.
The winners will meet in the grand-finale on 16 November.
The winner will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs from 23-31 March 2026 in Mexico.
It will feature six teams, split into two groups of three teams, with the winner from each group qualifying for the finals three months later.
Liberia began to miss out when it lost to Malawi and Equatorial Guinea in November although three points were restored from the Equatoguineans for illegally fielding Emilio Nsue.
