Harambee Stars to find out opponents in 2026 World Cup qualifiers on Thursday

The men’s national football team, Harambee Stars, will on Thursday find out the countries they will face in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The official Draw of the FIFA World Cup 2026 African Preliminaries Qualifiers will be conducted on Thursday, 13 July in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire at 1900EAT – a few hours after the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly takes place.

Back in May this year, CAF announced a new format for the qualifiers of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following the decision by FIFA to increase Africa’s quota from five to nine direct tickets.

The new format, which was approved by the Executive Committee of CAF during its meeting in Algiers on Thursday, will see the 54 Member Associations divided into nine groups of six teams each.

Games will be played on a round robin basis, and the top team from each group after Match Day 10, will earn an automatic qualification to the 2026 World Cup to be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Consequently, the best four second placed teams from across all nine groups will enter into a Continental play-off to determine one winner who will then proceed to a second and final play-off which will include six teams from the other different confederations.

The top two of these six will qualify for the World Cup to make up the 48 teams.

The qualifiers are scheduled to start in November this year, with Match Day One and Two scheduled for between 13-21 November, while the third and fourth match days are scheduled for June 2024.

The last match day will be in the week of October 6-14 while the Continental play-off will be staged between 10-18 November 2025 at a venue to be communicated later.

Seeding for 2026 World Cup Africa qualifying draw in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast on Wednesday (finals appearances in brackets)

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Pot 1

Morocco (6), Senegal (3), Tunisia (6), Algeria (4), Egypt (3), Nigeria (6), Cameroon (8), Mali, Ivory Coast (3)

Pot 2

Burkina Faso, Ghana (4), South Africa (3), Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea

Pot 3

Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo Brazzaville, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Angola (1)

Pot 4

Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo (1), Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi, Libya

Pot 5

Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, Liberia

Pot 6

Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, Sao Tome e Principe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, Somalia