Later today, the Black Stars will be informed of their opponents for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, which will be held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The draw will take place at the Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and will include Ghana and 53 other African nations.
At 15:00 GMT, the draw will be live-streamed on CAF digital channels including CAFONLINE.com. It will follow the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly, which will take place in Abidjan, shortly.
Due to the most recent FIFA ranking, which was revealed earlier this month, the 54 teams have been divided into six pots. Teams in the top eight CAF rankings will be in pot 1, followed by teams in pots 2 through 16 and so on.
In the first pot are Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, and Egypt. Ghana, who has won the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) four times, does not make it into pot one.
South Africa, Burkina Faso, and other nations are in pot two with the Black Stars. Ghana will try to qualify for the World Cup for a fifth time.
Due to their current standing, they may have to play Nigeria, a longtime foe, during the qualification round.
Strong rivals like Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, and Ivory Coast could possibly come up against Ghana.
The teams will be divided into nine groups of six teams for the draw, where they will play round-robin home-and-away games. Each group’s victor will earn a spot in the World Cup.
To identify a victor who advances to the second and final play-off, which will feature six teams from the other confederations, the top four second-placed teams from each of the nine groups will compete in a continental play-off.
To make up the 48 teams for the World Cup, the top two of these six will advance.
Later this year, the qualifications are expected to begin in November. The first and second matchdays are set for 13–21 November, while the third and fourth match days are set for 2024 in June.
The last match day will take place over the week of October 6–14, and the Continental play-off will take place between November 10–18, 2025, at a location that will be announced later.
Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, and Tunisia were Africa’s representatives at the World Cup in Qatar the previous year.
Morocco made history by placing fourth and became the first African nation to get to the semifinals.
See the Pots below:
Pot 1: Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Nigeria, and Algeria
Pot 2: Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Zambia, South Africa, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Guinea, DR Congo, and Equatorial Guinea
Angola, Benin, Kenya, Mauritania, Congo, Uganda, Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, and Namibia are all in pot number three.
Pot 4 includes Mozambique, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Libya.
Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, and Liberia make up Pot 5.
Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, Sao Tome, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, and Somalia make up pot number six.
