By Mark Gleeson
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – More places for Africa at the next World Cup finals have not dampened the intensity of the qualifying process, often described as the toughest in world football, which begins this week.
Qualifying for the 2026 tournament has begun in Asia and South America, with Africa kicking off its two-year qualifying campaign on Wednesday to determine who will fill the nine automatic spots for the continent at the event co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and USA
The expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams means that Africa’s quota of finalists increases from five to nine, with the possibility of another place through a new play-off system introduced.
Long distances to travel, combined with poor and infrequent flights, extreme climatic conditions, spartan facilities and a culture of hostility towards visiting teams have earned Africa’s qualifying process a reputation as the most difficult of the six continents confederations.
Carlos Queiroz, who coached Colombia, Egypt, Iran, Portugal, South Africa and now Qatar, once described Africa’s qualifiers as a “nightmare”.
For the 2026 World Cup, the 54 African participants were divided into nine groups with only the winners guaranteed a place in the finals.
The top four winners will participate in a playoff to determine one team that will go to the new-style intercontinental playoff tournament, in which one team from each continent will meet in a mini-tournament to determine the last two spots in the lineup. of the World Cup.
A total of 13 African countries, starting with Egypt in 1934, have played in World Cup finals. Cameroon are the most frequent participants with eight finals appearances.
They open their campaign with a home match in Douala on Friday against Mauritius before a more testing trip to Libya next Tuesday in Group D.
Morocco, who last year became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals, were due to start against Eritrea on Thursday but the small East African nation have withdrawn.
ERITIS CHORA
No reason was given, but the hermit country in the Horn of Africa has previously seen players skip and seek political asylum when they have gone abroad to compete.
Morocco’s first match in Group E is next Tuesday’s visit to Tanzania, who they also face in January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Ivory Coast.
Zimbabwe, kicked out of the last qualifiers for failing to settle the contract of a former coach, returned from another suspension, this time for political interference in the running of its football association, to face Rwanda away on Wednesday in the first 260 qualifiers of African groups expiring in October 2025.
Zimbabwe have not played a full international for almost two years and are among 19 countries whose facilities have been condemned as not up to international standards and forced to move their home matches to a neutral venue.
Zimbabwe will remain in Rwanda after Wednesday’s Group C opener and host Nigeria there on Sunday.
Others banned from playing at home are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)