The Confederation of African Football (CAF) section of the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification saw teams competing for one berth in the final tournament in Mexico.
Thirteen nations in total entered the qualifying stage but FIFA rejected the entries of Guinea and Zaire, leaving 11 nations to contest the qualifying spot.
This was the first World Cup to have a guaranteed place for an African team, a place which went to Morocco. Format There would be three rounds of play: First Round: Ten teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis, with one team receiving a bye to the Second Round. The winners (determined by aggregate score) would advance to the Second Round. Second Round: The six teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Final Round. Final Round: The three remaining teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winner would qualify. In June 1969, FIFA announced that Morocco had suggested that the final round be played as a single round-robin at a neutral venue, but that Sudan would not agree to this change of the format.
In the event of a tie, extra time would be played, and whichever team had scored more goals in the second leg would progress. If both games were drawn, or if extra time were not played, then a playoff on neutral ground would decide the fixture. If the playoff was a draw after extra time, a coin toss would be made to decide the winner.
Entrants
Qualification
First round
The aggregate score was tied 6–6, but Sudan advanced to the Second Round as they scored more goals in the second match.
The aggregate score was tied 2–2, and since extra time was not played in the second match, a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Second Round.
Morocco advanced to the Second Round, via the play-off.
Tunisia advanced to the Second Round.
Nigeria advanced to the Second Round.
Ethiopia advanced to the Second Round.
Second round
The aggregate score was tied 0–0, and as both legs were drawn, a play-off on neutral ground was played to decide who would advance to the Final Round.
Morocco advanced to the Final Round, by winning a coin toss.
Sudan advanced to the Final Round.
Nigeria advanced to the Final Round.
Final Round RankTeam15421153+224412187+133403158−3
Morocco qualified.
Qualified teams Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA World Cup1 0 (debut) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Goalscorers
5 goals
Sam Garba
3 goals
Houmane Jarir Emment Kapengwe Babiker Santo
2 goals
Zerga Geremew Asmeron Germa Mohammed El Filali Mohammed Lawal Olumuyiwa Oshode Nasr El-Din Abbas Ismaeil Bakhit Ali Gagarin Ezzedine Chakroun
1 goal
Boualem Amirouche David Ayo Dieudonné Bassanguen Norbert Owona Kebede Asfaw Emmanuel Feseha Mengistu Worku Abekah Ankrah Emmanuel Ola Mahmoud Al-Jahani Ahmed Ben Soed Mohamed Koussa Hassan Akesbi Driss Bamous Boujemaa Benkhrif Ahmed Faras Cherkaoui Hafnaoui Moulay Khanousi Joseph Aghoghovbia Peter Anieke Sebastian Broderick Imasuen Sunday Ineh Augustine Ofuokwu Samuel Opone Emile Pierre Diéme Abdoulaye Makhtar Diop Jadallah Kheirelseid Hasabu El Sagheir Abdelkfi Elsheikh Jagdoul Awad Koka Bushra Wahba Tahar Chaïbi Abdesselem Cheman Godfrey Chitalu Sandy Kaposa Dickson Makwaza
References
External links African Zone at FIFA.com