A group of African football legends has arrived in Ivory Coast for the draw of Africa’s 2026 FIFA World Cup, scheduled to take place in Abidjan on Thursday, July 13, 2023.
The team of African players includes renowned names such as Asamoah Gyan, El-Hadji Diouf, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jay Jay Okocha, and Anthony Baffoe, among others.
The presence of these African legends is expected to bring excitement and spectacle to the CAF Ordinary General Assembly and the draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
In preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, CAF has introduced a new qualification format consisting of nine groups, each comprising six teams.
The top nine teams from each group will secure automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
The four best second-placed teams from the groups will engage in playoffs. The winner of this playoff will then compete against a team from the CONCACAF zone for a chance to secure the tenth and final spot in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The best-ranked teams in Africa were seeded in Pot A and it includes; Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, Egypt and Ivory Coast.
Ghana was placed in Pot B alongside, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea
The top nine teams who will emerge from each group will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
The qualifiers are scheduled to take place over two years, from November 2023 to November 2025.