The Super Eagles of Nigeria will face familiar foes South Africa for a place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be jointly hosted by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.
Nigeria will also have to contend with neighbours Benin Republic, who is now being coached by former Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr in the preliminary qualifiers.
Also in the Group C alongside Nigeria, South Africa and the Benin Republic are Rwanda and Lesotho.
The official draw for the 2026 global event was made on Thursday just hours after the 45th CAF General Assembly which was also attended by CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe and FIFA President, Gianni Infantino in Abidjan.
African football legends Emmanuel Eboue, Asamoah Gyan, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha. Emmanuel Adebayor, Wael Gomaa and Alexandre Song assisted in the draw.
A total of 54 African nations will compete for the available 9.5 allocated spots for Africa, with the qualifiers officially starting in November.
As in previous qualifiers, the draw produced some interesting outcomes for the nations, who were split into nine groups of six as the journey to Canada, Mexico and USA gets underway in the next few months.
According to CAF, winners of each Group will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The four best runners-up (from the Groups) will play in a CAF Play-Off tournament.
The winner of the CAF Play-Off Tournament will play in the FIFA Play-off Tournament to potentially be the 10th African nation.
See the Full List of the draw below:
A – Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
B – Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan,
C – Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
D – Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius
E – Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea,
F – Cote d’Iviore, Gabon, Kenya, Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles
G – Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia
H – Tunisia, E/Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, Sao Tome
I – Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, CAR, Comoros, Chad