1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

Tournament details
Dates	31 May 1996 – 17 August 1997
Teams	36 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	91
Goals scored	229 (2.52 per match)
Attendance	2,810,227 (30,882 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mike Okoth Origi Vitalis Takawira (5 goals)
← 1994 2002 →

Qualification for championships (CAF)
FIFA World Cup 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 2030
Africa Cup of Nations 1962 1963 1965 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025
v t e

Listed below are the dates and results for the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for the African zone (CAF). For an overview of the qualification rounds, see the article 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification.

A total of 38 CAF teams entered the competition. However, Mali and Niger both withdrew before the draw was made. The African Zone was allocated five places (out of 32) in the final tournament.

Summary

There would be two rounds of play:

• First Round: Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt, the four highest-ranked teams according to FIFA, received byes and advanced to the Final Round directly. The remaining 32 teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The 20 teams were divided into five groups of four teams each. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would qualify. These were:
  •  Tunisia
  •  Cameroon
  •  Morocco
  •  Nigeria
  •  South Africa

First round

Team 1	Agg. Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mauritania	0–2	Burkina Faso	0–0	0–2
Namibia	3–1	Mozambique	2–0	1–1
Malawi	0–4	South Africa	0–1	0–3
Uganda	1–5	Angola	0–2	1–3
Guinea-Bissau	4–5	Guinea	3–2	1–3
Gambia	2–5	Liberia	2–1	0–4
Swaziland	0–3	Gabon	0–1	0–2
Burundi	2–0	Sierra Leone	1–0	1–0
Madagascar	3–4	Zimbabwe	1–2	2–2
Congo	3–1	Ivory Coast	2–0	1–1
Mauritius	1–7	Zaire	1–5	0–2
Rwanda	1–5	Tunisia	1–3	0–2
Kenya	3–2	Algeria	3–1	0–1
Togo	3–2	Senegal	2–1	1–1
Sudan	2–3	Zambia	2–0	0–3
Tanzania	1–2	Ghana	0–0	1–2

First leg

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

2 June 1996

15:30

Rwanda	1–3	Tunisia
Mupenzi 48'	Report	Sellimi 43' (pen.), 47' Ben Slimane 60'

Kigali City

Attendance: 8,000

Referee: Bisingu-Wabelo Buenkadila (Zaire)

---

---

---

---

Second leg

Burkina Faso won 2–0 on aggregate

---

Namibia won 3–1 on aggregate

---

South Africa won 4–0 on aggregate

---

Angola won 5–1 on aggregate

---

Guinea won 5–4 on aggregate

---

Liberia won 5–2 on aggregate

---

Gabon won 3–0 on aggregate

---

Burundi won 2–0 on aggregate but withdrew before the Final Round started, so their place was given to Sierra Leone.

---

Zimbabwe won 4–3 on aggregate

---

Congo won 3–1 on aggregate

---

Zaire won 7–1 on aggregate

---

Tunisia won 5–1 on aggregate

---

Kenya won 3–2 on aggregate

---

Togo won 3–2 on aggregate

---

Zambia won 3–2 on aggregate

---

Ghana won 2–1 on aggregate

Final round

Key:

• Teams highlighted in green qualified for the finals.

Group 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nigeria	6	4	1	1	10	4	6	13
Guinea	6	4	0	2	10	5	5	12
Kenya	6	3	1	2	11	12	−1	10
Burkina Faso	6	0	0	6	7	17	−10	0

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Group 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Tunisia	6	5	1	0	10	1	9	16
Egypt	6	3	1	2	15	5	10	10
Liberia	6	1	1	4	2	10	−8	4
Namibia	6	1	1	4	6	17	−11	4

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Group 3

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
South Africa	6	4	1	1	7	3	4	13
Congo	6	3	1	2	5	5	0	10
Zambia	6	2	2	2	7	6	1	8
DR Congo	6	0	2	4	4	9	−5	2

In May 1997, Zaire were renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo DR).

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Group 4

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Cameroon	6	4	2	0	10	4	6	14
Angola	6	2	4	0	7	4	3	10
Zimbabwe	6	1	1	4	6	7	−1	4
Togo	6	1	1	4	6	14	−8	4

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Group 5

Gabon vs Sierra Leone was not played, since neither team could advance with a win.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Morocco	6	5	1	0	14	2	12	16
Sierra Leone	5	2	1	2	4	6	−2	7
Ghana	6	1	3	2	7	7	0	6
Gabon	5	0	1	4	1	11	−10	1

---

---

---

---

---

Match abandoned after 53 minutes due to crowd trouble. FIFA allowed the result to stand

---

---

---

---

Match postponed due to Sierra Leone not being able to travel from Freetown due to conflict. The match was never rearranged due to the result having no effect on final group standings

---

---

Qualified teams

The following five teams from CAF qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup1
Nigeria	Final Round Group 1 winners	7 June 1997	1 (1994)
Tunisia	Final Round Group 2 winners	8 June 1997	1 (1978)
South Africa	Final Round Group 3 winners	16 August 1997	0 (debut)
Cameroon	Final Round Group 4 winners	17 August 1997	3 (1982, 1990, 1994)
Morocco	Final Round Group 5 winners	8 June 1997	3 (1970, 1986, 1994)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

There were 229 goals scored in 91 matches, for an average of 2.52 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

External links

• RSSSF Page
• Fifa.com Information