Remembering African World Cup Records Ahead Of The Draw

As the sights are on Cairo, Egypt for the draw for the group stage of the African section of FIFA World Cup qualification, Qatar 2022, scheduled on Tuesday 21 January 2020.

Forty (40) teams will take part in the draw that marks the kickoff of the second round, which will see the teams divided into ten groups of four teams each, playing in a round-robin format. The ten (10) group winners will advance to the third round which will see five home and away fixtures, with the aggregate five winners representing Africa in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The teams will be divided into four pots based on their latest FIFA ranking as follows:

Pot 1:
Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, DR Congo

Pot 2:
Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Guinea, Uganda, Cape Verde, Gabon, Benin, Zambia, Congo

Pot 3:
Madagascar, Mauritania, Libya, Mozambique, Kenya, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Niger, Namibia, Guinea Bissau

Pot 4:
Malawi, Angola, Togo, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Djibouti.

Before the draw, we take you through some African records in the World Cup history.

* Thirteen (13) African teams played before in the history of FIFA World Cup.

* Egypt was the first African team to play in FIFA World Cup, in Italy 1934.

* Cameroon is the African team with most participations in the history of FIFA World Cup, with seven (7) previous appearances (1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014)

* The list of African teams who took part in the FIFA World Cup is as follows:

- Cameroon – 7 times (1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014)

- Nigeria – 6 times (1994, 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018)

- Morocco – 5 times (1970, 1986, 1994, 1998 and 2018)

- Tunisia – 5 times (1978, 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2018)

- Algeria – 4 times (1982, 1986, 2010 and 2014)

- Egypt – 3 times (1934, 1990 and 2018)
- South Africa – 3 times (1998, 2002 and 2010)

- Cote d’Ivoire – 3 times (2006, 2010 and 2014)

- Ghana – 3 times (2006, 2010 and 2014)
- Senegal – 2 times (2002 and 2018)
- DR Congo (under the name Zaire) – 1 time (1974)

- Angola – 1 time (2006)
- Togo – 1 time (2006)

* Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) share the best African FIFA World Cup achievement, reaching the quarter finals.

* Cameroon played most games for an African team in FIFA World Cup history, 23 matches.

* Nigeria have the most wins for an African team in FIFA World Cup, having won 6 matches.

* The Super Eagles also hold the record for most goals scored by an African team, 23 goals.

* Egypt’s Abdul Rahman Fawzi was the first African to score in a FIFA World Cup match, against Hungary in 1934.

* Morocco was the first African team to earn a point, drawing 1-1 with Bulgaria in 1970.

* Tunisia was the first African team to win a World Cup match, beating Mexico 3-1 in 1978.

* Morocco was the first African team to go beyond the first round, reaching the Round of 16 in 1986.