African countries Ghana, Morocco, Egypt with Algeria and Tunisia have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Four more African qualification slots have been grabbed and 48 countries including 9 African countries will compete in the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time.
Reportedly, Ghana became the fifth African nation to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday, Oct 12, 2025 after Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia at next year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Ghana needed a point against Comoros in its final game in Group-I to be certain of qualifying for back-to-back World Cups and sealed its place with a 1-0 win at Accra Sports Stadium. Later, it didn’t even needed that after second-placed Madagascar lost 4-1 at Mali.
To ensure that Ghana qualifies in style Tottenham forward Mohammed Kudus scored the decisive goal in the 47th minute. Madagascar still finished at second, but victory would have improved its chances of being one of the four best runners-up which compete for a place in the playoffs.
The nine group winners automatically qualify for the World Cup. The four best runners-up play in mini tournament of two semi-finals and a final in November. The winning team advances to FIFA’s playoff tournament against opponents from Asia, CONCACAF, South America and Oceania.
Burkina Faso, second in Group-A behind Egypt rounded off its campaign with a 3-1 win against Ethiopia with substitute Pierre Landry Kabore scoring a second-half hat trick. Egypt had already qualified and picked up another win by beating Guinea-Bissau 1-0. In Group-E Niger beat Zambia by 1-0 and finished at second place.
Out of 48 teams 18 got qualified which are Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Argentina, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Ghana. Among all of these eighteen countries, Japan was the very first country to qualify on March 20, 2025.