By Our Correspondent

Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Nigeria’s Super Eagles has been seeded in Pot 1 as Confederation of Africa Football, CAF holds group qualifying draw on July 12

The 23rd edition of the global football fiesta will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States, from Thursday, June 11 to Sunday, July 19, 2026

The CAF Executive Committee announced that the Official Draw will be held on 12 July 2023 in Cotonou, Benin Republic

Nigeria, ranked 39th in June’s FIFA ranking and 6th in Africa, is in Pot 1 alongside Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroon, Algeria, Egypt and Mali.

Africa’s 54 nations are seeded into six pots of nine teams each.

Due to nine African teams now directly qualifying instead of five, the CAF announced a new qualification format on 19 May 2023. The countries will be drawn into nine groups of six teams, with all the group winners qualifying for the tournament.

The four best teams that finish in second place will compete in a mini-tournament and the winner will qualify for an intercontinental play-off.

The Eagles will hope to avoid a repeat of last year after they failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar.

The 2026 World Cup qualifying series will begin in November 2023 and end in October 2025