Super Eagles’ 2026 World Cup Hopes Dashed As FIFA Confirms DR Congo For Playoff Tournament

 

Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ hopes of featuring at the 2026 FIFA World Cup was dashed on Wednesday after FIFA confirmed the final line-up for the inter-confederation play-off tournament in Mexico, naming DR Congo as Africa’s representative.

In a notice announced on Wednesday ahead of the competition, FIFA detailed the tournament format and listed the six participating nations with DR Congo included.

This means the Super Eagles will not be part of the qualifiers despite the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) challenging the result of their defeat in the CAF play-offs in November 2025.

The NFF lodged a formal protest, claiming that DR Congo fielded ineligible players during the African playoff final which ended 1-1 and was decided via penalty shootout which the Super Eagles lost.

The appeal was meant to overturn the result and secure the Super Eagles’ place in the inter-continental play-offs.

Confirming the development in a statement, FIFA said: “The FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament will see six teams fight it out for the final two places at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, to be staged in Canada, Mexico and the United States across 16 Host Cities.”

“All of the six teams have now been decided, with Bolivia, Congo DR, Iraq, Jamaica, New Caledonia and Suriname confirmed as qualifiers.”

The play-off tournament will kick off on March 26.

The Super Eagles also missed out on the Qatar 2022 World Cup after losing to Ghana’s Black Stars in the playoffs.

For DR Congo, their first and only World Cup appearance was at the 1974 edition in the former West Germany.

The Congolese lost all their group matches to former Yugoslavia (9-0) Brazil (3-0) and Scotland (2-0).

2026 FIFA World Cup Play-off tournament schedule