Nigeria’s Super Eagles have been seeded in Pot 1 of the African qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the draw sheduled to hold on July 13, 2023 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The seedings, released by the world football governing body on Tuesday July 4, were based on the FIFA rankings for June.
Nigeria was seeded in the same pot with Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali and Cote d’Ivoire. This means that the Super Eagles will not meet any of the teams in Pot 1 in the group stages.
The qualification format will have nine groups of six teams, with the winners from each group qualifying for the finals as Africa’s slots have been increased to at least nine and a maximum of 10.
The four best runners-up will be drawn in a mini-playoff to find one extra team that will advance to the Intercontinental playoffs. In Pot 2 are Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, while Pot 3 has Uganda, Benin, Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, Namibia, and Angola.
Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi and Libya are in Pot 4, Pot 5 has Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana and Liberia, while Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, Sao Tome, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea and Somalia are in Pot 6.
Credit: The Guardian
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