Africa’s nine qualified nations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will discover their group-stage opponents on Friday at 19H00 Central African Time.
The draw for the expanded 48-team tournament takes place in Washington DC.
The ceremony, hosted at the Kennedy Centre, begins at 7 pm CAT (5 pm GMT) and marks the first major milestone in the final build-up to a World Cup that will span Canada, the United States and Mexico between 11 June and 18 July 2026.
For African teams, the draw represents more than just the unveiling of opponents.
It signals the first step in a campaign that many believe could be the continent’s most promising in decades, coming after Morocco’s historic semi-final run at Qatar 2022 – the first by any African nation.
Africa’s contingent is already confirmed: Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cape Verde and South Africa all topped their qualifying groups and secured automatic places at the tournament.
Under the new 48-team format, the World Cup will feature 12 groups of four, with teams drawn from four seeded pots based on the latest FIFA rankings.
Crucially for African sides, FIFA’s geographic restrictions ensure no group may contain more than one CAF nation, removing the possibility of early all-African clashes and guaranteeing nine separate African representatives across the groups.
Morocco and Senegal, currently Africa’s highest-ranked teams, enter the draw in Pot 2, avoiding some of the continent’s toughest potential opponents and increasing their chances of a favourable path.
Five African nations – Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa – are placed in Pot 3, setting up the possibility of complex, highly competitive groups.
Meanwhile, Ghana and Cape Verde, both positioned in Pot 4, face the toughest draw conditions and are expected to be matched with a Pot 1 global powerhouse.
Pot 1 contains the strongest nations at the tournament, including Germany, Brazil, France, Spain, England, Argentina and the three co-hosts – the United States, Mexico and Canada.
For African sides, the draw will determine not only their opponents but also their match venues, travel routes, rest periods and potential knockout pathways across a tournament hosted over three vast countries.
With unprecedented squad depth across the continent and a World Cup format offering more places and more knockout berths, African football enters the draw with a renewed sense of possibility.
Whether Morocco can build on their 2022 heroics or whether another African nation emerges as a surprise contender will begin to take shape tonight when the 2026 World Cup map is finally revealed.
Below are the pots for the 2026 World Cup draw;
- Pot 1: France, Canada, Mexico, United States, Spain, Argentina, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
- Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Austria, Australia
- Pot 3: Saudi Arabia, Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, South Africa
- Pot 4: Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, winners of European play-offs A, B, C and D, winners of intercontinental play-offs 1 and 2.
Courtesy of CAF Online.
