The African section of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification acted as qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, held in Russia, for national teams which were members of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). A total of five slots in the final tournament were available for CAF teams.

The CAF Executive Committee approved the format for the qualifiers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 14 January 2015, with three preliminary rounds before a final group stage featuring 20 teams. The number of preliminary rounds was reduced to two, based on information provided by FIFA in early July 2015.

Format The qualification structure was as follows: First round: 26 teams, ranked 28–53, played home-and-away over two legs. The 13 winners advanced to the second round. Second round: 40 teams, ranked 1–27 and 13 first round winners, played home-and-away over two legs. The 20 winners advanced to the third round. Third round: 20 teams which had advanced from the second round were divided into five groups of four teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The winners of each group qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Entrants All 54 FIFA-affiliated football associations from CAF entered qualification. However, Zimbabwe were expelled from the competition on 12 March 2015 due to their failure to pay former coach José Claudinei a severance fee, a decision that the Zimbabwe Football Association unsuccessfully appealed.

The July 2015 FIFA Rankings were used to seed the teams for the first two rounds, both of which were drawn in Russia on 25 July 2015. (World rankings shown in brackets)

+From the July 2015 FIFA World RankingsBye to second round(ranked 1st to 27th)Competing in first round(ranked 28th to 54th) (19) (21) (25) (32) (39) (42) (47) (52) (55) (57) (58) (60) (61) (63) (65) (70) (71) (72) (73) (78) (83) (84) (90) (92) (95) (96) (96)

Note: Niger had to enter the first round as they had fewer FIFA ranking points (345.31) than Benin (345.46) and Libya (345.35). In the FIFA World Rankings, teams share the same ranking if their ranking points round to the same whole number.

Schedule The schedule of the competition was as follows.

RoundMatchdayDateFirst roundFirst leg5–13 October 2015Second legSecond roundFirst leg9–17 November 2015Second legRoundMatchdayDateThird roundMatchday 13–11 October 2016Matchday 27–15 November 2016Matchday 328 August – 5 September 2017Matchday 4Matchday 52–10 October 2017Matchday 66–14 November 2017

First round

The draw for the first round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Second round

The draw for the second round was held as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw on 25 July 2015, starting 18:00 MSK (UTC+3), at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Third round

The draw for the third round was held on 24 June 2016, 17:00 EET (UTC+2), at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt.

Groups

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Qualified teams The following five teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA World Cup1 4 (1978, 1998, 2002, 2006) 5 (1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014) 4 (1970, 1986, 1994, 1998) 1 (2002) 2 (1934, 1990)

Top goalscorers

Below are full goalscorer lists for each round:

First round Second round Third round

Incidents

Match fixing scandal On 6 September 2017, the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Bureau annulled the result of the South Africa v Senegal match played on 12 November 2016, and ordered the match to be replayed during the November 2017 international window, which was confirmed by the Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions on 14 September 2017. Originally, South Africa had won the match 2–1, but Ghanian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on 20 March 2017 for unlawfully influencing the match after awarding South Africa a penalty for handball. The ban was upheld by the FIFA Appeal Committee and subsequently by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 6 September 2017. The match was replayed in Polokwane, South Africa on 10 November 2017, with Senegal winning 2–0 to finish first in their group and qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Fan behaviour After Morocco qualified for the tournament with a 2–0 victory over Ivory Coast, the celebrations by the Moroccan community in Brussels turned into a riot with cars burnt, shops looted by some 300 rioters and 20 police officers injured. Firefighters sent to put out the fires were also attacked by the rioters.

Notes

References

External links

Qualifiers – Africa, FIFA.com 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Qualifiers, CAFonline.com