Stars set to know opponents in Fifa World Cup qualifiers

A total of nine slots in the final tournament and one inter-confederation play-off slot are reserved for CAF teams.

The official draw for Africa’s World Cup qualifiers takes place today at 7pm Tanzanian time in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Taifa Stars are in pot four together with Mozambique, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zimbabwe, Central Africa Republic, Malawi and Libya.

Teams will be drawn into nine groups of six teams and play home-and-away round robin matches from November 2023 to October 2025.

The winners of each group will qualify directly for 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.

According to the draw procedures, pot one (1) comprises Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali and Ivory Coast and pot two (2) has Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, the DR Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

CAF changed the format of the qualifiers at its Executive Committee meeting in Algiers on May 18.

The new format has been adapted to the expanded FIFA World Cup and will involve CAF's 54 member associations, divided into nine groups.

Morocco, the first semi-finalists from Africa, Cameroon, Senegal and Tunisia featured in the 2022 tournament and are among the nine first seeds for the draw.

However, the fifth African participants, Ghana, miss out and, along with eight other teams including South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have to settle for being second seeds.