Nigeria’s Super Eagles have been drawn alongside South Africa in the Group C of the preliminary round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, slated to be hosted by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico from 11 June 2023 to 19 July 2026.

The three-time African champions, who have participated in six editions of the FIFA World Cup but missed the last edition in Qatar, are joined in the group by its neighbours Benin Republic, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Lesotho.

The draws, made at the Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Thursday evening, saw 54 African countries battling for the nine automatic World Cup tickets, which could rise to ten for the Confederation of African Football region.

Those fifty-five countries are distributed into nine groups of six teams each, with the best-ranking teams automatically qualifying for the World Cup in North America. Each country will place ten matches each including home and away.

In the other groups, nine-time African champions Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Djibouti were all drawn in Group A while Senegal, DR Congo, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan and South Sudan are in Group B.

Group D consists of Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, and Mauritius while Africa’s first World Cup semi-finalists, Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger and Eritrea will tango in Group E.

Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, the Gambia, Burundi and Seychelles are in Group F and Group G is occupied by Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana and Somalia.

For Group H are Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia and São Tomé and Principe, while Mail, Ghana, Central African Republic, Comoros and Chad are in Group I.

The qualifiers will begin on November 13 this year all through to November 2025.