₦airaland Forum

Did Nigeria make the playoffs?

Explanation
With the expanded system of the 2026 World Cup holding in USA/Canada/Mexico, nine teams will be representing Africa (CAF) Instead of the traditional five.

Teams were drawn into nine (9) Groups with six (6) teams each, playing one another on a home and away basis. The winner of each group will directly qualify to the World Cup, while the four best runners-up will participate in play-offs to determine which team will advance to the Inter-confederation play-offs.

With Egypt, Cape Verde, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ghana and now South-Africa automatically through to the World Cup, the race for the playoffs take shape.

Recent calculation change
Following Eritrea's voluntary withdrawal in Group E, CAF & FIFA revised the ranking formula to provide for fairness. In March 2025, the rule was announced thus:- Whenever a group has fewer than six teams due to withdrawal or disqualification, results against the lowest-ranked or withdrawn teams will not be considered when determining the best runners-up.

For the playoff/second-placed rank teams,
Before Points DEDUCTION, The table as it stands:-

Gabon (9 games) - GD (+11) - 22 points - Group F "game ongoing"
Burkina Faso (10 games) - GD (+15) - 21 points - Group A
Cameroon (10 games) - GD (+12) - 19 points - Group D
Congo DR (9 games) - GD (+8 - 19 points - Group B "game ongoing"
Madagascar (10 games) - GD (+5) - 19 points - Group I
Uganda (10 games) - GD (+5) - 18 points - Group G
Nigeria (10 games) - GD (+7) - 17 points - Group C
Namibia (10 games) - GD (+3) - 15 points - Group H
Niger (8 games) - GD (+1) - 15 points - Group E

Following the points deduction, against lowest-ranked teams

Gabon defeated lowly-placed Seychelles both home and away and will see 6points taken off, they settle with 16 poimzs

Burkina Faso walloped lowest-placed team DjiBouti (6-0) & (4-1). 6 points yanked off ....they settle with 15 points

Congo DR beat South Sudan on both legs and gets a -6 points tally, new tally is 13 points

Uganda defeated Somalia on both legs and see 6 points taken away from their tally - now settle with 12 points

Namibia got the better off Sao Tome & Principe on both legs and gets a -6 points - new score = 12 points

Madagascar beat Chad on both legs and gets a -6 points tally with a new total score of 13 points

2 points will be taken off Nigeria since the Super Eagles played a 1-all draw against the lowest-ranked side, Zimbabwe both at home and in Harare, Nigeria now settles with 15 points.

Cameroon took 4 points from Eswatini and see total tally = 15 points

Outlier
Gabon is one point behind Cote D'Ivoire
Cote d'Ivoire (beat Seychelles on two legs) will also get -6 points if they finish second.

The standings take a different shape with:-
Gabon/Cote d'Ivoire
Congo DR/Burkina Faso
Nigeria - 15 points
Cameroon - 15 points

taking the four playoff spots

CAF PlayOff System
These four teams will face off knockout style in a two semi-final format. How they face each other will be dependent on FIFA's October 23 team ranking. The highest ranked side will face the least-ranked of the four in SF1, whilst the other two meet each other in SF2. It is one-legged, resulting in extra time and penalties If it ends in a draw.
Venue: Morocco
Date: SF1 and SF2 matches will take place on 13/11/2025
Final: SF1 v SF2 will be on 16/11/2025

The winner progresses to the InterContinental PlayOff whilst others go home.

InterContinental PlayOff Spot
The CAF playoff winner will join one team apiece from Asia, South America, Oceania and two from Latin & Central America (CONCACAF) in a mini-tournament.

According to the FIFA rankings, all six teams will be placed in two brackets with the two highest ranked teams called the "SEEDED TEAMS" and the lowest four the "UNSEEDED TEAMS". Placed in two groups with each getting a SEEDED TEAM and 2 UNSEEDED teams each.

SF*: UnSeeded A in Group 1 vs UnSeeded B in Group 2
SF**: UnSeeded C in Group 1 vs UnSeeded D in Group 2

Final1: Winner of SF* vs Seeded Team1
Final2: Winner of SF** vs Seeded Team 2

The winners of Final 1 & Final 2 take the last two spots to the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Venue: Mexico
Date: 23-31 March, 2026

Bolivia (CONMEBOL) for South America and New Caledonia (Oceania) are already through to the Intercontinental PlayOffs.

Game is concluded....

*Ivory Coast wins Group F - Gabon goes to PlayOff with 19 points
*Congo DR finishes second in Group B with 16 points, goes to PlayOff

raumdeuter:
Gabon won their game 2-0 and DR Congo won 1-0

What is the permutation now

No difference - Confirmed: Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon & Congo DR proceed.

Gabon finished second behind Ivory Coast.
So Gabon goes to the Playoff

Congo DR also finished second.

FIFA ranking to be released on 23/10/25 will tell us who we meet.

Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso finished on same points but Cameroon scored 14 goals and conceded 5.

Burkina Faso scored a total 23 goals and conceded 8 goals, however they scored 10 against lowest-ranked DjiBouti and conceded 1. With the goals also chalked off;
Their Goals For = 13, Goals Against = 7 - Goal Difference (+6)

Nigeria scored a total 15 goals and conceded 8 goals, the Super Eagles scored 2 goals against Zimbabwe and conceded 2. With these goals chalked off;
Goals For =13, Goals Against = 6. - Goal Difference (+7) 👍

Sammology:
No one is asking how much Nigeria paid Eritrea, because this permutation get as e be

Eritrea withdrew in 2023 before Round 1 of the fixtures.

Their country withdrew allegedly over fears their players may seek political assylum during their away games. More than 60 players have followed that route during International games and ran away hence the country forcefully withdrew. The last time they played any football game was in 2020.

The players wanted to play but the Government said no way.

congrats to our SUPA EAGUS boys for clipping the Benin boys

fergie001:
Game is concluded....

*Ivory Coast wins Group F - Gabon goes to PlayOff with 19 points
*Congo DR finishes second in Group B with 16 points, goes to PlayOff

Gabon won their game 2-0 and DR Congo won 1-0

What is the permutation now and who do we face in the playoff

Same permutation story all the time. I hope we get through this time.

We got a divine favour this time. I hope it continues working for us.

Abeg I no sabi this mathematics

Someone explain to me, hope dey?

When are we playing our next qualifying match and with which country?

Are you saying Super Eagles made it?

Long long thing !

We need Jesus

The person who explained this isn't good at his/her job. I don't understand what he/she puts up here. Perhaps CAF/FIFA unnecessarily made the whole playoff thing cumbersome, because if it were to be UEFA organised playoff, you will understand who plays who, and the timing, not these kind of difficult permutations.

If these unserious lots had a good start, who would be doing permutations and what not?

Na now wahala don start.. since they were not serious in the FIRST PLACE.


Y'all saw what I did there??!

fergie001:
Game is concluded....

*Ivory Coast wins Group F - Gabon goes to PlayOff with 19 points
*Congo DR finishes second in Group B with 16 points, goes to PlayOff

Nigeria goes to playoff

I think the most difficult point of this play off for the super eagle is winner the Africa ticket.

They will surely be seeded, and only need to play a match against unseeded inferior team from other continent. Bolivia and Nigeria are likely going to be seeded if we qualified.

Chai hw has d mighty fallen?
What a shame.

Diz z d level Nigerian 🇳🇬has gotten in all aspects. Spits!!!

Tough and narrow ways

Our boys fvck up big time from the beginning of the qualifier. They failed to win tangible matches

Unfortunately Nigeria won't make it to the World Cup. They can't win the playoffs

StoryHaven:
Are you saying Super Eagles made it?

We finished among the top runners-up, we qualified for the second round of CAF qualifiers in November

Wow.... That's nice, hope they can beat the opponent in the playoff....





We are used to caculators to qualify.....

If Nigeria had beaten South Africa when they came to Nigeria we wouldn't be having this headache.

We are no longer using mathematics to qualify again but further maths.

Permutations all the time. Something they ought to have seen off easily

Thanks, you have made me understand how we got to the play off, once I must thank Victor for his patriotic effort that made it possible. Let them finish the work.

COMRADES are speechless, what are they saying here? Abeg we don't want our joy turned into tears ooo

AmGreat1234:
When are we playing our next qualifying match and with which country?

Base on his analysis
The match will be played on November 13 an 16
The top FIFA ranking will play with the lowest FIFA ranking

See stress na. Nigerians and Nigeria really love stress.

raumdeuter:
Gabon won their game 2-0 and DR Congo won 1-0

What is the permutation now and who do we face in the playoff

Una go calculate taya
Una go calculate taya
Una go calculate taya
How many characters remain

This is a detailed breakdown.
I wish the Super Eagles well in this journey

It's a long and torturous road for the Nigerian team now. We depend too much on miracles for world cup qualification instead of good football administration and proper planning.

if they have shared all this goals they scored today to those draw matches,there would be no need for the calculators

The stress and the permutations and the calculations too much ooo. Which kind wahala be this sef

I think we should start early preparations for the next world cup qualifiers. This team is just not good enough period.