Africa-Press – Kenya. Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat has promised to steer the team past their highly-rated opponents in the upcoming 2026 Fifa World Cup African Preliminaries Qualifiers.
Kenya have been assigned to Group F of the 2026 Fifa World Cup African Preliminaries Qualifiers. The Stars will face Ivory Coast, Gabon, Gambia, Burundi, and Seychelles in the group, according to a draw conducted in Abidjan on Thursday.
Before the draw, Kenya was placed in Pot 3 with Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Congo Brazzaville, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, and Angola. Speaking in an exclusive interview on Friday, Firat acknowledged the tough opposition ahead but said he was not quaking in the boots ahead of the arduous task.
“We have found ourselves in a very competitive group, yes, but what makes you think we are the obvious underdogs among the six teams? We are not scared at all. Our sole objective will be to win our matches,” Firat said.
“As I said earlier, we have a large pool of players to turn to and we shall do our best to hone their skills effectively for the task ahead,” he added. In May, Caf announced a new format that would increase the number of direct tickets allocated to Africa from five to nine.
The 54-member associations will be pooled into nine groups of six teams each under the new format, which was accepted by the Caf Executive Committee at a meeting in Algiers, Algeria.
The top team from each group after Match Day 10 will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup, which will jointly be hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Games will be played on a round-robin system.
The best four second-placed teams from each of the nine groups will compete in a Continental play-off to identify a victor, who will then advance to a second and final play-off with six teams from the other confederations.
The top two of these six will qualify for the World Cup, bringing the total to 48 teams. The qualifiers are set to begin in November this year, with Match Days One and Two taking place between November 13 and 21, with the third and fourth match days taking place in June 2024.
The last match day will take place over the week of October 6–14, and the Continental play-off will take place between November 10–18, 2025, at a location that will be announced later. Kenya finished third in Group ‘E’ of the Caf World Cup qualifying tournament for 2022.
Full Draw
Group A: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti; Group B: Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan; Group C: Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho; Group D: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius; Group E: Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea; Group F: Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles; Group G: Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia; Group H: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, Sao Tome; Group I: Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros.
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