JOHANNESBURG: 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 prolific Liverpool scorer and Egypt captain Mohamed Salah will be among the stars in action this week when 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 US.

The expansion of the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams means Africa’s quota 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 Africas 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.

Salah’s two Premier League goals against Brentford at the weekend raised his total to 200 in English football, and he is now set to shine against Group ‘A’ rivals Djibouti and Sierra Leone.

Salah was the second highest ranked African in the Ballon d’Or last month behind Napoli and Nigeria forward Victor Osimhen, who misses the first matchdays due to an injury.

Omar Marmoush of Eintracht Frankfurt and Mostafa Mohamed of Nantes are other Egyptians who have been scoring regularly in major European leagues this season.

Djibouti, who face Egypt in Cairo on Thursday, are among the weakest African national teams and have twice suffered eight-goal hidings in World Cup qualifiers.

Sierra Leone will be handicapped at having to stage a home fixture against Egypt on Sunday in Liberia because they lack an international-standard stadium.

The strongest challenge to Salah and his team-mates could come from Burkina Faso, ranked 10th in Africa, five places below Egypt. Guinea-Bissau and Ethiopia are the other Group ‘A’ contenders.

Egypt have won the Africa Cup of Nations a record seven times, but struggle in World Cup qualifying, reaching the finals only three times, compared with eight appearances by Cameroon.

Cameroon 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.

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.

Nigeria must do without Osimhen, one of the favourites to win the CAF Footballer of the Year award next month, and injured AC Milan winger Samuel Chukwueze against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

But Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro has many talented replacements to choose from, including Victor Boniface of Bayer Leverkusen and Taiwo Awoniyi of Nottingham Forest.

There are concerns, however, about the Super Eagles’ defence with Cyprus-based goalkeeper Francis Uzoho coming under fire for his performances in two recent friendly matches.

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 and Sudan.

Former Premier League manager Chris Hughton admits he is under pressure as Ghana coach ahead of qualifiers at home to Madagascar and away to the Comoros.

“They are two games we must do well in,” he said amid media calls for his dismissal after a four-goal friendly hiding by the United States last month.—

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023