African football qualification method.

There will be three rounds of qualifying for the world cup in Qatar from the African contingency.

The first round will see 28 of the lowest ranked nations compete in home and away ties where the winners will advance onto the second round.

The second round will consist of a round robin format, teams will be drawn into ten groups of four entrants. The second round winners will be joined by the top 26 ranked African nations.

First Round

The first round is active from the African contingent. Four teams have made it through to the next round already, they are as follows; Liberia, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Ethiopia. (Liberia is the lowest ranked side of the quartet)

There are second legs yet to be played.

Rwanda advances to the next round with a 10-0 aggregate win over the Seychelles. They won 3-0 in Victoria and 7-0 in Kigali.

Second Round

40 teams will contest the third round with the top 26 ranked African nations joining in at this stage. Draw details to be confirmed.

The draw for round two of world cup qualification for the African sides has been made. Ten groups of four teams is the current format of this qualifying segment. The highest ranked side in accordance to the FIFA world rankings as 19th December 2019, Senegal has been drawn into group H alongside, Congo, Namibia and Togo.

Djibouti is the lowest ranked side left in at this point, their last best placed in a world cup tournament was back in 1974 when they were a part of France.

Second Round Update September 3rd 2021

Algeria opened up their second round campaign in an attempt to qualify for the 2022 world cup, thrashing Djibouti by eight clear goals in Blida. As a result of that score, they are sitting pretty at the top of group A with second place Burkina Faso who won their first match, 2-0 against Niger. Islam Slimani scored a hat trick in his team’s 8-0 win.

In the other groups;

Group B:

Zamba won 2-1 against Mauritania whereas, Tunisia won three nill against Equatorial Guinea.

Group C:

Cabo Verde drew 1-1 with the Central Africa Republic and Nigeria were 2-0 winners against Liberia in Lagos.

Group D:

The Cote D’Ivoire were held to a 0-0 draw with Mozambique in Maputo. Whilst, Cameron came out of Yaounde with a 2-0 win against Malawi.

Group E:

Mali won 1-0 against Rwanda and Kenya drew 0-0 with Uganda.

Group F:

Mo Salah’s Eygypt won 1-0 against Angola whereas, Libya won 2-1 against Aubameyang’s Gabon.

other groups:

Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, and Benin all won their first match.

13th October 2021 News!

Niger and Djibouti are eliminated from qualification as three losses for Djibouti were enough to see them crash out. Niger had won game in the previous three and that was on matchday two against Djibouti.

Algeria and Burkina Faso are level on points after four games but Algeria has a superior goal difference.

Algeria put six past Niger on matchday three and put four past Niger yesterday.

Mauritania, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, Angola, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Togo, Namibia, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sudan have all been eliminated whereas Morocco & Senegal are through to the next stage of the qualification process.

(The third round sees the ten second round group winners drawn into, two legged affairs where the winners of them ties sealing their place at Qatar 2022)

13th November 2021 Update:

In the second round of African qualifying, all teams play a total of six games each. Five have been played already. This week coming is the final week of games.

What has been settled?

Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Egypt are the only teams to have advanced through to the next round, many other teams are still vying for their place in it.

What does the third round entail?

All ten group winners will be drawn in to a two legged series, five ties overall, with the winner of each fixture going to the world cup in Qatar.

Which teams are still in contention for round three?

Algeria, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Eq. Guinea, Zamvbia, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, South Africa, Ghana, Benin and DR Congo.

16th November 2021 Update:

The third round roster has been confirmed.

Who is in the third round?

• Algeria
• Tunisia
• Nigeria
• Cameroon
• Mali
• Egypt
• Ghana *
• Senegal
• Morocco
• DR Congo

(* The match between South Africa and Ghana is being reviewed due to some controversy surrounding some ‘questionable decisions’ by the match referee)

Matchday six round up. (selected results)

Niger handsomely beat Djibouti 7-2 in Niamey. Third round occupants Algeria drew against the lesser nation of Burkina Faso.

Former Watford and Manchester United striker, Odion Ighalo managed to play some of the game for his country, ‘Nigeria’. As they drew 1-1 with the 76th best nation in the world, ‘Cape Verde’. Nigeria are in the third round, closing in on their qualification.

Kenya and Mali both won their final second round games with the latter winning 1-0 against Uganda and Kenya beating Rwanda 2-1.

26th March 2022

We are in the business end of qualification and the winners of the third round games qualify for the World Cup. Each game is a two legged affair.

Not very high scoring games yesterday.

Egypt edged past Senegal in Cairo, 1-0. Algeria shocked Cameroon with a 1-0 win and Tunisia was the other team that took a 1-0 lead into the second leg. They played Mali,

DR Congo drew with Morocco, as did, Ghana with Nigeria. The latter being 0-0.

The second leg of these fixtures is on the 29th.

The away goals rule applies in these qualifying games.

Third round update – March 29th 2022

Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Morocco and Tunisia all sealed their places at Qatar 2022.

Senegal beat Mo Salah’s Egypt in a penalty shoot out after parity over two legs. Cameroon beat Algeria 2-2 on aggregate but Cameroon won by the away goals rule.

DR Congo were defeated in a 5-2 win by Morocco.

Tunisia beat Mali 1-0. Ghana won on the away goals rule against Nigeria.