This 23rd edition of the FIFA World cup tournament will have 48 participating countries instead of the previous 32 teams. This means that African teams will have more qualifying slots of upto ten Nations taking part.
The Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) executive held the group stage draws for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in Abidjan, Ivory Coast under a new format which has seen nine groups of six teams formed where by the top team will secure a direct slot to the world Cup after a home and away basis and the best four second placed teams vying for a slot in the last qualifying round.
Uganda has been pitted in group G where they will face Algeria, Botswana, Somalia, Mozambique and Guinea. According to the 2026 mission, FUFA set it’s targets to seeing that Uganda qualifies to the 2026 World Cup but they will have to face the Algeria test before dreaming of a debut appearance at the World Cup.
Mission 2026 – World Cup
The ‘Mission 2026’ project would have been possible but the National team of Uganda is undergoing a transition which hasn’t yet matured eversince the return of Micho Multin Sredjovic as the head coach, this has also been hindered with the lack of a CAF standard approved play ground hence FUFA opting to host home games in other countries.
Uganda has already tested the toughness of Algeria as they lost both of the matches they played in the CAF Africa Cup Qualifiers as they went on to lose 2-1 in the first leg away from home and also a 2-0 loss as they hosted Algeria in Cameroon.
Besides Algeria, Guinea is also another team to look out for in group G as it has been one of the teams to have an outstanding performance in recent years, Botswana, Somalia and Mozambique might be the under dogs in group G.
Uganda will also fancy their chances of performing better as they vie for a qualification slot as one of the best second placed teams if at all they can not beat Algeria who has alot of experience at international football having featured at the 2022 World Cup.
The 4 best group runners-up will then compete in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off tournament.
The FIFA play-off tournament will feature one team from each of FIFA’s six confederations, except UEFA, plus one additional team from the host confederation Concacaf.
With these alterations, the final 2026 world cup draw will form 12 groups with 4 teams each. The number of games played in total will increase from 64 to 104, and the tournament will last between 38 to 40 days.
2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers – Africa
Group A – Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
Group B – Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan
Group C – Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
Group D – Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius
Group E – Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea
Group F – Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles
Group G -Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia
Group H – Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe
Group I – Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad
