Cameroon, Gabon, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have all named their squads for the Confederation of African Football play-offs in Rabat, as they battle for a single ticket to progress to the Fifa intercontinental play-off tournament in March.
The four African nations will contest a winner-takes-all tournament in Morocco on Thursday, with the victor earning Africa’s final place in the intercontinental play-offs next year.
Gabon’s squad features captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who will lead the Panthers’ attack alongside LA FC forward Denis Bouanga as they seek to reach a World Cup finals for the first time in their history.
The quartet were the best runners-up across the nine African qualifying groups, and the play-off winner will keep alive their nation’s hopes of becoming the continent’s 10th representative at next year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Nine African countries have already qualified via direct entry from the CAF group stage: Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
The draw for the play-offs was based on Fifa world rankings as of 17 October, with Nigeria ranked highest at 41st, followed by Cameroon (54th), DR Congo (60th) and Gabon (77th).
Based on those rankings, Fifa implemented a number one seed versus number four seed matchup for the first semi-final, with number two facing number three in the second.
Morocco’s capital will host all three matches across different stadiums, with the semi-finals taking place on Thursday.
Nigeria face Gabon at 16:00 GMT at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium, before Cameroon take on DR Congo at 19:00 GMT at the Al Barid Stadium.
The final will be held on Sunday at 19:00 GMT at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium – the venue which will host the Africa Cup of Nations final on 18 January.
All three matches are sudden-death encounters, with no second legs or aggregate scores determining the outcome.
However, winning Sunday’s final will not guarantee World Cup qualification. The victorious nation must still overcome teams from other continents in a Fifa intercontinental play-off scheduled for March in Mexico to decide the final two qualifiers for the tournament.
The intercontinental play-off will feature two teams from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and one team apiece from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
Tags: World Cup 2026, Africa World Cup qualifying, CAF, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, DR Congo, Morocco, World Cup play-offs, African football, intercontinental play-offs, FIFA
