2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)
Tournament details
Dates 7 October 2015 – 14 November 2017
Teams 54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played 86
Goals scored 205 (2.38 per match)
Attendance 1,246,712 (14,497 per match)
Top scorer(s) Algeria Islam Slimani
Burundi Fiston Abdul Razak
Liberia William Jebor
Niger Moussa Maâzou
Uganda Farouk Miya
(4 goals each)

The African section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification act as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to be held in Russia, for national teams which are members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). A total of 5 slots in the final tournament are available for CAF teams.[1]

The CAF Executive Committee approved the format for the qualifiers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 14 January 2015,[2] with three preliminary rounds before a final group stage featuring 20 teams. The number of preliminary rounds was reduced to two, based on information provided by FIFA in early July 2015.[3][4]

Format

The qualification structure is as follows:[4][5]

Entrants

All 54 FIFA-affiliated football associations from CAF entered qualification.[6] However, Zimbabwe were expelled from the competition on 12 March 2015 due to their failure to pay former coach José Claudinei a severance fee,[7] a decision that the Zimbabwe Football Association said they would appeal.[8]

The July 2015 FIFA Ranking were used to seed the teams for the first two rounds, both of which were drawn in Russia on 25 July 2015.[4] (World rankings shown in brackets)[9]

From the July 2015 FIFA World Rankings[9]
Bye to second round
(Ranked 1st to 27th)		 Competing in first round
(Ranked 28th to 53rd)
  1.  Algeria (19)
  2.  Ivory Coast (21)
  3.  Ghana (25)
  4.  Tunisia (32)
  5.  Senegal (39)
  6.  Cameroon (42)
  7.  Congo (47)
  8.  Cape Verde (52)
  9.  Egypt (55)
  10.  Nigeria (57)
  11.  Guinea (58)
  12.  DR Congo (60)
  13.  Mali (61)
  14.  Equatorial Guinea (63)
  15.  Gabon (65)
  16.  South Africa (70)
  17.  Zambia (71)
  18.  Burkina Faso (72)
  19.  Uganda (73)
  20.  Rwanda (78)
  21.  Togo (83)
  22.  Morocco (84)
  23.  Sudan (90)
  24.  Angola (92)
  25.  Mozambique (95)
  26.  Benin (96)
  27.  Libya (96)
  1.  Niger (96)
  2.  Ethiopia (101)
  3.  Malawi (108)
  4.  Sierra Leone (111)
  5.  Namibia (112)
  6.  Kenya (114)
  7.  Botswana (120)
  8.  Madagascar (122)
  9.  Mauritania (128)
  10.  Burundi (131)
  11.  Lesotho (131)
  12.  Guinea-Bissau (133)
  13.  Swaziland (138)
  14.  Tanzania (139)
  15.  Gambia (143)
  16.  Liberia (161)
  17.  Central African Republic (170)
  18.  Chad (173)
  19.  Mauritius (180)
  20.  Seychelles (186)
  21.  Comoros (187)
  22.  São Tomé and Príncipe (189)
  23.  South Sudan (195)
  24.  Eritrea (204)
  25.  Somalia (205)
  26.  Djibouti (207)

Note: Niger had to enter the first round as they had fewer FIFA ranking points (345.31) than Benin (345.46) and Libya (345.35). In the FIFA World Rankings, teams share the same ranking if their ranking points round to the same whole number.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows.[10]

Round Matchday Date
First round First leg 5–13 October 2015
Second leg
Second round First leg 9–17 November 2015
Second leg
Round Matchday Date
Third round Matchday 1 3–11 October 2016
Matchday 2 7–15 November 2016
Matchday 3 28 August – 5 September 2017
Matchday 4
Matchday 5 2–10 October 2017
Matchday 6 6–14 November 2017

First round

The draw for the first round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[11]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Somalia  0–6  Niger 0–2 0–4
South Sudan  1–5  Mauritania 1–1 0–4
Gambia  2–3  Namibia 1–1 1–2
São Tomé and Príncipe  1–3  Ethiopia 1–0 0–3
Chad  2–2 (a)  Sierra Leone 1–0 1–2
Comoros  1–1 (a)  Lesotho 0–0 1–1
Djibouti  1–8  Swaziland 0–6 1–2
Eritrea  1–5  Botswana 0–2 1–3
Seychelles  0–3  Burundi 0–1 0–2
Liberia  4–2  Guinea-Bissau 1–1 3–1
Central African Republic  2–5  Madagascar 0–3 2–2
Mauritius  2–5  Kenya 2–5 0–0
Tanzania  2–1  Malawi 2–0 0–1

Second round

The draw for the second round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.[11]

Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Niger  0–3  Cameroon 0–3 0–0
Mauritania  2–4  Tunisia 1–2 1–2
Namibia  0–3  Guinea 0–1 0–2
Ethiopia  4–6  Congo 3–4 1–2
Chad  1–4  Egypt 1–0 0–4
Comoros  0–2  Ghana 0–0 0–2
Swaziland  0–2  Nigeria 0–0 0–2
Botswana  2–3  Mali 2–1 0–2
Burundi  2–6  DR Congo 2–3 0–3[note 1]
Liberia  0–4  Ivory Coast 0–1 0–3
Madagascar  2–5  Senegal 2–2 0–3
Kenya  1–2  Cape Verde 1–0 0–2
Tanzania  2–9  Algeria 2–2 0–7
Sudan  0–3  Zambia 0–1 0–2
Libya  4–1  Rwanda 1–0 3–1
Morocco  2–1  Equatorial Guinea 2–0 0–1
Mozambique  1–1 (3–4 p)  Gabon 1–0 0–1 (a.e.t.)
Benin  2–3  Burkina Faso 2–1 0–2
Togo  0–4  Uganda 0–1 0–3
Angola  1–4  South Africa 1–3 0–1

Third round

The draw for the third round was held on 24 June 2016, 17:00 EET (UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.[13]

Groups

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  DR Congo 2 2 0 0 6 1 +5 6 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 2 Sep '17 6 Nov '17 4–0
2  Tunisia 2 2 0 0 3 0 +3 6 28 Aug '17 — 2–0 6 Nov '17
3  Guinea 2 0 0 2 1 4 −3 0 1–2 2 Oct '17 — 28 Aug '17
4  Libya 2 0 0 2 0 5 −5 0 2 Oct '17 0–1 2 Sep '17 —
Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Nigeria 2 2 0 0 5 2 +3 6 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 28 Aug '17 2 Oct '17 3–1
2  Cameroon 2 0 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 Sep '17 — 1–1 2 Oct '17
3  Zambia 2 0 1 1 2 3 −1 1 1–2 6 Nov '17 — 28 Aug '17
4  Algeria 2 0 1 1 2 4 −2 1 6 Nov '17 1–1 2 Sep '17 —
Updated to match(es) played on 12 November 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Group C

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Ivory Coast 2 1 1 0 3 1 +2 4 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 6 Nov '17 2 Sep '17 3–1
2  Morocco 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 0–0 — 2 Oct '17 28 Aug '17
3  Gabon 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 28 Aug '17 0–0 — 6 Nov '17
4  Mali 2 0 1 1 1 3 −2 1 2 Oct '17 2 Sep '17 0–0 —
Updated to match(es) played on 12 November 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Group D

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Burkina Faso 2 1 1 0 3 1 +2 4 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 1–1 2 Sep '17 6 Nov '17
2  South Africa 2 1 1 0 3 2 +1 4 2 Oct '17 — 2–1 2 Sep '17
3  Senegal 2 1 0 1 3 2 +1 3 28 Aug '17 6 Nov '17 — 2–0
4  Cape Verde 2 0 0 2 0 4 −4 0 0–2 28 Aug '17 2 Oct '17 —
Updated to match(es) played on 12 November 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Group E

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Egypt 2 2 0 0 4 1 +3 6 Qualification to 2018 FIFA World Cup — 2 Sep '17 2–0 2 Oct '17
2  Uganda 2 1 1 0 1 0 +1 4 28 Aug '17 — 2 Oct '17 1–0
3  Ghana 2 0 1 1 0 2 −2 1 6 Nov '17 0–0 — 28 Aug '17
4  Congo 2 0 0 2 1 3 −2 0 1–2 6 Nov '17 2 Sep '17 —
Updated to match(es) played on 13 November 2016. Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Goalscorers

As of 13 November 2016

Note: Players in bold are still active in the competition.

4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal

Notes

  1. ↑ FIFA awarded Congo DR a 3–0 win as a result of Burundi fielding the ineligible player Gaël Bigirimana.[12] The match originally ended 2–2.

References

  1. ↑ "Current allocation of FIFA World Cup™ confederation slots maintained". FIFA.com. 30 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "FORMAT OF 2017 AFCON QUALIFIERS AND 2018 WORLD CUP". CAFonline.com. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Statistical Kit for the Preliminary Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com. 3 July 2015. p. 11. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Preliminary Draw procedures outlined". fifa.com. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Draw Procedures – African Zone" (PDF). FIFA.com.
  6. ↑ "Road to Russia with new milestone". FIFA.com. 15 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Zimbabwe expelled from the preliminary competition of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia". FIFA.com. 12 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "Zimbabwe expelled from 2018 World Cup". BBC Sport. 12 March 2015.
  9. 1 2 "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – July 2015 (CAF)". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 9 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "CAF Calendar - CAF Calendar of Events and Meetings 2015". cafonline.com. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Results of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 Preliminary Draw". CAF. 25 July 2015.
  12. ↑ "DISCIPLINARY OVERVIEW – 2018 FIFA WORLD CUP RUSSIA™ QUALIFIERS" (PDF). FIFA. 1 February 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2016.
  13. ↑ "June draw for third round of African Zone qualifiers". FIFA.com. 20 November 2015.
  14. ↑ "Regulations – 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia" (PDF). FIFA.com.

External links

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