Super Eagles of Nigeria
The Super Eagles will know their opponents in the 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers tomorrow at the draw in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire.
According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the draw will be live on CAF digital platforms and CAFONLINE.com a few hours after the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly also in Abidjan.
CAFs member associations have been divided into nine groups for the draw, with winners of each group automatically qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The four best runners-up (from the groups) will play in a CAF play-off tournament, which winner will play in a FIFA organised play-off tournament.
Nigeria has been drawn in Pot 1 for the draw as one of the nine seeds in the qualifying series. Others in the same pot are Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroun, Mali and Cote dIvoire. This means that the Super Eagles will not meet any of the teams in Pot 1 in the group stages.
The qualification format will have nine groups of six teams, with the winners from each qualifying for the finals because Africas slots were increased to at least nine and a maximum of 10.The four best runners-up will be drawn in a mini-playoff to find one extra team that will advance to the Intercontinental playoffs.
In Pot 2 are Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, while Pot 3 has Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, Namibia, and Angola.
Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi and Libya are in Pot 4, Pot 5 has Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana and Liberia, while Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, Sao Tome, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea and So
malia are in Pot 6.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. (The Guardian)
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