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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE are set to know their next opponents in international football when the official draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 African qualifiers is conducted in Cote d’Ivoire tomorrow.
According to a statement from CAF yesterday, the draw will be live on CAF digital platforms at 6pm — a few hours after the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly that will also be held in Abidjan.
The Warriors will be in pot 4 along with Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Malawi and Libya.
Zimbabwe have been out of action since February 2022 due to a FIFA suspension. But the country bounced back to the international football family following the lifting of the suspension on Monday evening, just in time for the World Cup draw.
CAF have announced a new format for the qualifiers of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, following the decision by FIFA to increase Africa’s quota from five to nine direct tickets. The new format will see the 54 member associations divided into nine groups of six teams each.
Winners of each group will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026 to be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The four best runners-up (from the Groups) will play in a CAF Play-off tournament. The winner of the CAF Play-off Tournament will play in the FIFA Play-off Tournament.
The World Cup qualifiers are set to begin in November. The qualifiers are scheduled to start later this year, with the opening two rounds of matches scheduled between November 13-21, while the third and fourth match days are scheduled for June 2024.
The FIFA play-off tournament is scheduled for March 2026.
Zimbabwe have missed the AFCON 2023 tournament as well as the regional COSAFA Cup tournaments for both men and women. The local clubs were also excluded from the CAF inter-club competitions. The Warriors are conspicuous by their absence at the COSAFA Cup taking place in South Africa. The six-time COSAFA Cup champions are one of the most successful teams at the event and Ralph Nkomo, who is the Special Advisor to COSAFA president, yesterday said Zimbabwe should reclaim its place in regional football.
He said the Warriors were sorely missed at the 22nd edition of the regional tournament taking place in Durban from July 5-16.
“Zimbabwe is an integral member of COSAFA, one of the founding members and it’s like when you are a family of six or five and you miss one brother, when it’s meal time the food doesn’t even taste good because you miss one brother.
“So took it upon ourselves to push that Zimbabwe comes back into the family fold,” said Nkomo at the unveiling of the ZIFA normalisation committee in Harare yesterday.
He said COSAFA understood the serious challenges facing Zimbabwe football following reports of corruption and maladministration against the ousted Felton Kamambo executive.
“In life, when you open a window for fresh air, if mosquitoes come in it doesn’t mean the fresh air is bad.
“That’s what happened. There have been things that happened and we don’t want to talk about it.
“Kids that were 16 two years ago have missed two years of international football. Some of them could have signed to overseas clubs, some of them could have played professional football but they couldn’t because you were suspended. But that’s all in the past now.
“From now onwards, as COSAFA, our dream is for Zimbabwe to take its rightful place. This country has got so much talent and human capital.
“If we get our act right, our dream is to see Zimbabwe qualify for the 2026 World Cup. By the way we are in the draw for it tomorrow and we are looking forward to it.
“The normalisation committee needs support from COSAFA, CAF and FIFA on the technical side but my advice is they should work with the biggest stakeholder the Sports and Recreation Commission, which is the government. No one should be left behind because this country deserves football.
“Football is such a uniting sport. It’s everybody’s dream; everybody who can walk and kick a ball feels one day they can play professionally and we need to support them,” said Nkomo.
Online Reporter