Nigeria's Super Eagles Have Been Grouped With South Africa, Benin, 3 others For The 2026 World Cup Qualifying Draw.

The draw for the African countries to represent the continent in the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be co-hosted be USA, Mexico and Canada, has been completed today in Abidjan, Cote’d’Ivoire immediately following the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly at the same location.

Africa will use a single-stage World Cup qualification structure, according to a statement from the Confederation of African Football, with the 54 Member Association teams being divided into nine groups of six teams each under the new CAF format.

The decision eliminates the previous three qualification round process, which requires over two years to complete.

The qualification process will determine the teams that will earn a spot alongside hosts Canada, Mexico, and the United States in the highly anticipated tournament.

The group winners will advance to the World Cup after Africa’s slots were increased to nine teams, with the 10th team qualifying via a playoff system.

Nigeria Super Eagles have be drawn in Group C of the Africa World Cup qualifiers, alongside South Africa, Benin Republic, Rwanda, Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

How does the qualifying round work?

The nine groups will play in a home and away, round-robin, format with each of the group winners qualifying automatically for the FIFA World Cup 26™ .

The four best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off tournament.

The FIFA play-off tournament will feature one team from each of FIFA's six confederations, except UEFA, plus one additional team from the host confederation (Concacaf).

Two of the six teams will be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.

The first round of games is slated to take place between November 13-21 but it is unknown when the Super Eagles will play their first match.

Full Draws Here:

Group A: 

Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti

Group B: 

Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan

Group C: 

Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho

Group D: 

Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius

Group E: 

Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea

Group F: 

Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles

Group G: 

Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia

Group H: 

Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe

Group I: 

Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad.

The Big Question:

Which countries would top their groups? 🤔