World Cup
Gruelling African World Cup qualifying gets under way
More places for Africa at the next World Cup finals has not lessened the intensity of the qualifying process, often described as the toughest in world football, and which kicks off this week.
Qualification for the 2026 tournament has begun in Asia and South America, and Africa starts its two-year qualifying campaign on Wednesday to determine who will fill the nine automatic places for the continent at the event co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S.
The expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams means Africa’s quotas of finalists is increased from five to nine, with the possibility of another place through a new playoff system that has been introduced.
The long distances to travel, combined with poor and infrequent flight connections, extreme climatic conditions, Spartan facilities and a culture of hostility towards visiting teams have earned Africa’s qualifying process a reputation for being the hardest of the six continental confederations.
Carlos Queiroz, who coached Colombia, Egypt, Iran, Portugal, South Africa and now Qatar, once described the African preliminaries as “a nightmare”.
For the 2026 World Cup, the 54 African entrants were divided into nine groups with only the winners assured of a place at the finals.
The four best-ranked runners-up will participate in a playoff to determine one team that will go onto the new-style intercontinental playoff tournament, in which one side from each continent will meet in a mini tournament to determine the last two places in the World Cup line-up
A total of 13 African countries, starting with Egypt in 1934, have played at the World Cup finals. Cameroon are the most frequent participants with eight finals appearances.
They begin their campaign with a home match in Douala on Friday against Mauritius before a more testing trip to Libya next Tuesday in Group D.
Morocco, who last year became the first African country to reach the World Cup semi-finals, were supposed to start against Eritrea on Thursday, but the small east African nation has withdrawn.
HERMIT COUNTRY
No reason was given but the hermit country on the horn of Africa has previously seen players defect and seek political asylum when they have gone abroad to compete.
Morocco’s first match in Group E is next Tuesday’s visit to Tanzania, who they also face in January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast.
Zimbabwe, kicked out of the last qualifiers because they had failed to settle the contract of a former coach, return from another ban, this time for political meddling in the running of their football association, to face Rwanda away on Wednesday in the first of the 260 African group qualifiers which end in October 2025
Zimbabwe have not played a full international in almost two years and are among 19 countries whose facilities have been condemned as not up to international standard and been forced to move their home games to a neutral venue.
Zimbabwe will stay in Rwanda after Wednesday’s opening Group C match and host Nigeria there on Sunday.
The others banned from playing at home are Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eswatini, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Niger, Sao Tome e Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan.
–Reuters
Iran cannot participate in the 2026 World Cup after co-host, the U.S. launched airstrikes alongside Israel, Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said on Wednesday.
The attacks killed the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and triggered a region-wide conflict.
“Considering that this corrupt regime has assassinated our leader, under no circumstances can we participate in the World Cup,” the minister told state television.
The 48-team World Cup will be held in the U.S., Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19.
“Our children are not safe and, fundamentally, such conditions for participation do not exist,” Donyamali said.
“Given the malicious actions they have carried out against Iran, they have forced two wars on us over eight or nine months and have killed and martyred thousands of our people. Therefore, we certainly cannot have such a presence.”
More than 1,300 Iranian civilians have been killed since the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes began on February 28, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani.
IRAN DRAWN TO PLAY IN LA AND SEATTLE
Iran are grouped with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand.
All three of their Group G matches are scheduled to take place in the U.S., two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.
Iran, who dominated the Asian qualifying rounds to qualify for the tournament in March last year, was the only nation missing from a FIFA planning summit for World Cup participants held last week in Atlanta.
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian Football Federation or world soccer’s governing body FIFA.
FIFA regulations state that any team that withdraws from the tournament “no later than 30 days before the first match” will be fined at least 250,000 Swiss francs ($320,800).
“Disciplinary sanctions may include the expulsion of the participating member association concerned from subsequent FIFA competitions and/or the replacement of the participating member association with another member association,” FIFA’s regulations say.
“The FIFA Council or the relevant committee may decide, in particular, to replace the member association in question with another association.”
Iran had selected Tucson’s sprawling Kino Sports Complex as the team’s base camp and 18 months of preparation hang in the balance with a potential economic hit in Arizona.
There is also the question of tickets to World Cup games involving Iran. Should Iran boycott the tournament, Iranian fans who bought tickets for eye-watering prices may be tempted to sell them on the huge resale market.
INFANTINO SAYS TRUMP WELCOMES IRAN TEAM
Earlier, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said he had met U.S. President Donald Trump, who told him he welcomed Iran’s participation in the World Cup.
Trump had previously said “I really don’t care” if Iran participated or not, but Infantino said he had a productive discussion with the president.
“During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” Infantino said.
A source in Tehran familiar with the matter said that as well as Iran’s decision not to attend the World Cup, warm-up games were not possible because of the war.
Earlier this week, Australia granted humanitarian visas to five Iranian women soccer players after they sought asylum, fearing persecution on their return home for their refusal to sing the national anthem at a Women’s Asian Cup match.
Trump had called on Australia to give asylum to members of the Iran women’s soccer team.
On Wednesday, Australian police helped two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation slip their minders to claim asylum, but one has changed her mind and decided to go back to Iran, the country’s interior minister said.
-Reuters
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Angola have cancelled planned friendlies this month against Jordan and Iran, the Angolan Football Federation said in a statement.
They were due to take on Jordan and Iran, who have both qualified for the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the U.S later this year, in Dubai at the end of March.
“The aggravation of the current conflict in the Middle East and the consequent instability that is felt in the region meant a serious, prudent and responsible re-evaluation,” the statement said.
Angolan officials said they tried to seek an alternative for the match against Jordan but “after a deep and rigorous evaluation of the financial obligations involved, the required logistical and administrative effort and the respective competitive benefit for the national team, it has been concluded that playing just one game would not rationally and strategically be justified”.
Angola said they were therefore cancelling plans to play in the March international window. The country did not qualify for the 2026 World Cup and will play their next competitive fixture in September when the group qualifiers for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations finals kick off.
They recently fired French coach Patrice Beaumelle and have yet to appoint a successor.
-Reuters
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FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday that he met with United States President Donald Trump, who told him he welcomed Iran’s participation in the 2026 Soccer World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Iran was the only nation missing from a FIFA planning summit for World Cup participants held last week in Atlanta, deepening questions over whether the country’s soccer team will compete on U.S. soil this summer amid an escalating regional war.
Trump told Politico earlier that he is not concerned about Iran’s participation, as they were a “very badly defeated country”.
“We also spoke about the current situation in Iran, and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026,” soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, boss Infantino said in a post on his official social media account.
“During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States.
“We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World.”
Iran secured a trip to a fourth successive World Cup by topping Group A in the third round of Asian qualifying last year, but Mehdi Taj, president of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said the viciousness of the attacks by U.S. and Israeli forces did not augur well for the World Cup, to be held from June 11 to July 19.
The Iranians were grouped with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand in Group G. Their matches are scheduled to take place in the U.S., two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.
If both the U.S. and Iran finish second in their respective groups, the two countries could meet in a July 3 elimination match in Dallas.
-Reuters
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