2023-11-06 17:12:59
The Benin Cheetahs meet the Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, on November 18, 2023. The Beninese men’s team will thus begin the qualifiers for the 2026 Football World Cup. A decisive turning point to qualify for a competition which will see the participation of 48 teams from around the world.
After missing his qualification for CAN Ivory Coast 2023, Benin embarks on another campaign. The first two matches of the Cheetahs will take place outside the national territory. From Saturday November 18, 2023, the selection led by the Franco-German technician, Gernot Rohr, will challenge the South African football team at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban.
Following the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, the Cheetahs of Benin will continue, three days later, the second day of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Gernot Rohr’s men will cross crampons with the players of Lesotho on Tuesday November 21, 2023 in Lesotho.
For these two days, 25 players were called up. Gernot Rohr trusts the majority of players who were in the group during FIFA days for October 2023, except Tosin Aiyegun injured. Striker Cabel Gomez and defender Rodrigue Kossi return to the national team. The team’s executives: Khaled Adenon and Jordan Adeoti are among others notably absent from the revealed list.
List of 25 players selected
Qualifiers for a 48-team world championship
After the first two days, the rest of the qualifiers will be played in 2024 and 2025. Benin, which is in group C, has Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Lesotho as opponents.
The winner of the group qualifies for the 48-team World Cup to be played in 2026 in several cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The best runner-up qualifies for the continental play-offs where the four best runners-up from the nine pools play a tournament for a qualifying ticket for the intercontinental play-offs.
In these intercontinental play-offs, six teams from different continents compete. At the end of this intercontinental tournament, two countries validate their ticket and join the first nations of each group already qualified for the World Cup.
These roadblocks are the consequences reforms carried out by the FIFA. From 32 teams, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) brings the number of selections expected at the world to 48. Thus, Africa can have 10 or 11 countries against five usually and eight or nine countries for Asia against 4, 5. Europe goes from 13 to 16 representatives, South America from 4.5 to six or seven qualifiers and North America from 3.5 to six or eight. Oceania is assigned a team spot.
#World #Cup #Benin #Cheetahs #qualifiers #November