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🌍 Club World Cup: all you need to know about Africa’s play-offs 🔎
Nov 13 2025 14:16 · By onefootball.com · 225 Reads
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It starts today!
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This Thursday afternoon marks the beginning of the World Cup qualification play-offs for the Africa zone.
In this knockout phase, four teams will fight for their chance to reach the biggest competition of all. Here’s everything you need to know.
Four teams will face off in a format with two semi-finals, followed by a final. However, the ticket to the World Cup will not go to the country that wins this tournament.
The winner of the Africa zone play-offs will then go on to compete in another mini-tournament during the international window in March.
The qualified African country 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 last tickets for the 2026 World Cup .
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 will take 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.
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 hold their own and secure their play-off spot.
While they had their fate in their own hands just a few matchdays before the end of qualification, the Congolese suffered a terrible home defeat to Senegal (2-3) after having led 2-0. Now, here they are in the play-offs.
As for Cameroon , they secured a play-off spot by finishing behind Cape Verde, who made history by qualifying for their first World Cup .
Finally, Nigeria is the little miracle of this tournament. Thanks to a 4-0 win over Benin, the Super Eagles snatched second place from the Beninese on the final day of qualification.
In your opinion, who will clinch the ticket to 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