🌍 Club World Cup: all you need to know about the African play-offs | OneFootball

It starts today!

This Thursday afternoon marks the beginning of the World Cup qualification play-offs for the Africa zone.

In this knockout phase, four teams will be fighting for their chance to reach the biggest competition of all. Here’s everything you need to know.

The Format

Four teams will face off in a format with two semi-finals, followed by a final. But the qualifying ticket for the World Cup won’t be handed to the country that wins this tournament just yet.

The winner of the Africa zone play-offs will then go on to compete in another mini-tournament during the March international window.

The qualified African nation will join two teams from CONCACAF, one from the AFC, one from CONMEBOL (Bolivia), and one from the OFC (New Caledonia).

Two of these teams will then secure the final spots for the 2026 World Cup.

The Matches

Here are the fixtures for the Africa zone mini-tournament starting this Thursday:

Nigeria - Gabon (5:00 PM)

Cameroon - DR Congo (8:00 PM)

All these matches are taking place in Rabat, Morocco, at the El Barid Stadium and the Prince Moulay El Hassan Sports Complex. The final will be played this Sunday, November 16.

How did the nations qualify?

The countries qualified by finishing as the best runners-up in the African qualification phase for the 2026 World Cup.

In a group dominated from start to finish by Ivory Coast, Gabon still managed to secure their spot in the play-offs.

While they had their fate in their own hands just a few matches before the end of the qualifiers, the Congolese suffered a crushing home defeat to Senegal (2-3) after leading 2-0. Now, here they are in the play-offs.

For their part, Cameroon secured a place in the play-offs by finishing behind Cape Verde, who made history by qualifying for their first ever World Cup.

Finally, Nigeria is the surprise survivor of this tournament. Thanks to a 4-0 victory over Benin, the Super Eagles snatched second place from the Beninese on the final day of qualification.

In your opinion, who will secure the ticket for the intercontinental play-off?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

📸 PHILL MAGAKOE - AFP or licensors