All change in CAF World Cup qualifying

A new format will determine Africa's representatives at the 2026 World Cup in North America

- MARK GLEESON

Africa have dispensed with their three-tier qualifying system and will have only a single stage to determine the continent's automatic qualifiers for the next World Cup in North America, with the first games getting underway in November.

Traditionally, Africa decided its World Cup representatives with a preliminary stage to help eliminate the lesser lights, followed by a group stage and then two-legged play-offs. Now it will be a lot simpler as Africa's representation for the 2026 finals jumps from five in Qatar to nine (possibly ten via the inter-continental play-offs) for the next tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The draw for the nine groups, from which only the winners will automatically qualify, was conducted in Abidjan in July, with all of the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) 54 members entering.

This includes Eritrea, who have not competed in international football for the last three years after a spate of defections of team members at matches outside of their borders. The country on the horn of Africa has become known as "Africa's North Korea" due to its isolationism, with many fleeing compulsory national service for its youth and a repressive regime.

It is a coup for CAF to have a full house of entrants for the qualifiers, although FIFA members risk losing their subsidies from world football's governing body if they do not enter a requisite number of competitions.