By Desmond Tunde Coker
Sierra Leone senior male football team Leone Stars have been drawn alongside Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Djibouti in the FIFA World Cup 2026 preliminary qualifies in Group A.
During the draw, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) divided the nine groups of six countries each based on their current FIFA ranking. However, with the total number of participating teams increasing from 32 to 48 for the 2026 World Cup, Africa’s automatic qualifying spots have increased from its initial five qualifying slot to nine countries slot, and can get one more slot if they win an inter-continental play-off tournament.
The preliminary qualifiers will be played on a home-and-away round-robin basis with winners in each Group automatically qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2026 finals.
The best four (4) runners-up (from the Groups) will play in a CAF Play-Off tournament to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off tournament. The winner of the CAF Play-Off tournament will play in the FIFA Play-Off tournament.
The play-off tournament will feature one team from each of FIFA’s six confederations, excluding UEFA, plus one additional team from the host confederation (Concacaf).
Two of the six teams will be seeded based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.
CAF preliminary Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 is set to officially start in November this year and end in November of 2025.
Leone Stars will be hopeful to succeed from the preliminary qualifiers as possible Group winners and qualify for the 2026 World Cup finals to be hosted in USA, Canada and Mexico for the first time in the country’s entire footballing history.