The road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup brings a major shift for Africa, thanks to FIFA’s expansion from 32 to 48 teams. CAF now has 9 direct qualification spots plus 1 potential inter‑confederation playoff berth. The sports betting platform 1xBet offers plenty of wagering options on the FIFA World Cup qualifiers too.
Let’s start by describing the first round, which originally played 54 teams divided into 9 groups with 6 teams each, which were drawn back in July 2023. They played in a round-robin format of home and away games against all their rivals. At the 1xBet sports section you can also make betting on all those games too.
What happens afterwards
The winners of each group earn the aforementioned 9 direct qualification sports to the FIFA World Cup. At the same time, all second-placed teams are ranked from best to worst, and the four best of them go to the CAF play-off tournament. Once that instance takes place, a bet football on it can be made at 1xBet too.
This play-off starts with semi-finals that are played in a single-leg format. The two winners advance to the final of this play-off. The winner of the final qualifies into the inter-confederation play off. For the 2026 tournament, this instance will gather 6 teams in total:
- the CAF playoff winner;
- one team from AFC;
- another from CONMEBOL;
- another squad from CAF;
- and 2 teams from CONCACAF.
Make sure to perform a football bet on this instance too by going to 1xBet. Those 6 teams will be ranked according to their FIFA ranking. The four lowest ranked teams will play a sort of semi-final round. The 2 winners will play finals against the 2 highest ranged squads. The winners of those 2 finals will get the final 2 sports at the FIFA World Cup.
A new qualifying format that replaced the previous multi-stage instances
The format is both inclusive, initially engaging 54 nations, and competitive, keeping the playoff door open for near-miss teams. By making the 1xBet login registration, it will also be possible for you to bet on all national football teams from Africa and other places from across the world too.
Previously, there were multiple group stages that determined which African national sides made it into the FIFA World Cup. This new format with just 1 group stage followed by playoffs was introduced due to the greater number of places available for African teams at the competition. If you go to 1xBet it will be very easy for you to make your registration and then login to bet at the FIFA World Cup or its exciting qualifiers.