JOHANNESBURG (Kashmir English): South Africa, Ivory Coast and Senegal all have reserved their berths for Africa at the 2026 World Cup.
The trio will join Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Cape Verde, Egypt, and Tunisia at next year’s global showpiece to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
All the three won convincingly on Tuesday to fill the last three automatic places for Africa.
Senegal were the most convincing winners, thrashing Mauritania 4-0, while Ivory Coast beat Kenya 3-0 and South Africa were also 3-0 winners against Rwanda.
On the other hand, Gabon, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria kept alive hopes of enhancing the African representation to 10 countries by finishing as the four best-ranked runners-up.
They will meet in two single-match semi-finals and a final in Morocco during November and the winners advance to inter-continental play-offs in March with two World Cup places up for grabs.
South Africa’s fourth appearance in World Cup
This will be South Africa’s fourth appearance in the world tournament. They qualified for the 1998 and 2002 events and were automatic participants in 2010 as the host nation.
