OFFICIAL! CAF unveils the new qualifying format in the African zone for the 2026 World Cup:

📊 9 groups of 6 nations each.
🥇 The first of each group is automatically qualified for World Cup.
🥈 The 4 best second are qualified for the playoffs.
🌍 The winners of the playoffs will face a play-off from a foreign continent.

The dates :
■ November 13-21, 2023 👉 Days 1 & 2
■ June 3-11, 2024 👉 Days 3 & 4
■ March 17-25, 2025 👉 Days 5 & 6
■ September 1-9, 2025 👉 Days7 & 8
■ October 6-14, 2025 👉 Days 9 & 10
■ November 10-18, 2025 👉 Play-off tournament - CAF
■ March 2026 👉 Play-off tournament - FIFA

That's a good development

This is 👍, at least naija go dey qualify back to back 🔙

This is a very difficult format for all African teams. Six teams in a group will not be easy for any team in the highly unpredictable African footbal terrain with various home game gimmicks that sheepishly hand undue advantages to local teams.

Nigeria especially, holds no guarantee to qualify. CAF should rethink the format if it wants to send its best from the continent to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Otherwise, the likes of Burundi, South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana, Swaziland or Eswatini would be the ones representing Africa in USA, Canada and Mexico and that would be a disgrace.

This format brings us back to the Issa Hayatou era which favored teams like Cameroon, Morocco, Algeria and Egypt against all odds because of the undue advantage of home team magic with CAF as notable accomplice. This time around, the favoritism goes to South Africa and our sister nations from the Southern borders.

The current CAF president has been scheming his regional equality in football mantra since his inception in the CAF officialdom. Someone should drum it into Mr. Patrick Motsepe's hard ears that football does not thrive by making teams equal by force just to promot sectional or geological growth of football. The only way to assure good footballing growth for Africa is through promotion of vibrant and healthy competitions.