AFRICA REVEALS ITS 2026 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING SCHEDULE.

Africa will use a single round of World Cup qualifying for the 2026 finals instead of the previous three rounds, which will take over two years to complete.

The Confederation of African Football stated on Friday that the continent will have nine spots at the expanded 48-team tournament in North America and has chosen a structure of nine groups, where the victor alone will qualify for the World Cup.

Prior to this, Africa’s qualification process included up to three stages: preliminary rounds for the lower-ranked nations, a group stage, and two-leg playoffs to choose the five representatives the continent has had in previous finals.

The entire African qualifying procedure for the tournament in Qatar last year was condensed into a six-month timeframe, but for the tournament in 2026, it will take 23 months before the identities of the nine finalists are known.

On July 12, the CAF announced that the draw for the nine groups will take place in Cotonou, Benin.

There was no further explanation provided, but it did state that it expected all 54 African countries to participate, resulting in six countries in each group and that the teams will likely be seeded for the draw based on the most recent FIFA rankings.

There will be three separate windows in March, September, and October 2025 to finish the groups. The qualifiers will begin in November and continue until June of the following year.

For a chance at the 10th African spot, the four best runners-up from each group will compete in a CAF playoff event in November 2025. The winners of that tournament will then compete in the FIFA playoff competition in March 2026.

Six teams will compete in this playoff tournament to determine the remaining two World Cup spots. The six teams will consist of one team from each confederation—aside from Europe—and another squad from the CONCACAF confederation of the host nations.

In the middle of 2026, Canada, Mexico, and the United States will host the World Cup finals.

FIFA, which oversees international football, has previously revealed that the championship match will take place on July 19.