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Claim: Africa Facts Zone claims Morocco’s triumph over Portugal in the quarter-final of the ongoing FIFA World Cup will give Africa 11 slots at the 2026 edition.
Verdict: FALSE
Full Text
Following the triumph of the Atlas Lions of Morocco in the third semi-final match at the ongoing 2022 Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup on Saturday, December 10, 2022, the entire African continent was thrown into a frenzy. It’s the first time an African team would reach the semi-finals in the 92 years history of the quadrennial global sports event.
The world cup currently ongoing in Qatar has elicited both online and offline reactions globally. One such reaction trailed the historical feat came from Africa Facts Zone, which dubbed itself “Africa’s biggest facts brand and the world’s most up-to-date facts platform” in its Twitter bio. It’s Twitter handle @AfricaFactsZone has about 853,000 followers.
While the match was ongoing at about 4:36 PM (WAT) on Saturday, Africa Facts Zone tweeted, “If Morocco defeats Portugal and qualifies for the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup, Africa will get 11 slots in the 2026 World Cup. 9 permanent slots, one via playoff and one because they reached the semi-finals.”
As of Sunday morning, the tweet has already garnered 351 comments, 7,102 retweets and over 27,000 likes. This tweet also sparked a reaction from Twitter users.
In a reaction, Nuno Sousa (@nnuunneexx), wrote: “@motlaleexcel, this is what I meant! Reach later stages… get more slots… ! Basic maths.” @nnuunneexx obviously believed Africa Facts Zone and even used it to prove his erroneous belief to another user.
Another user, Foz (@FozGharby), was curious when he asked, “Is that true? That spots at the next WC linked to performance this WC (sic)?”
Morocco went on to make history as the first African country to reach the FIFA World Cup Semi-final after Youssef En-Nesyri’s first half-header helped the Atlas Lions defeat their Portuguese opponents. Does this victory mean the Confederation of African Football (CAF) would get 11 slots at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
Verification
Since the number of participating teams at the world cup increased at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, five countries have continued to represent Africa at the competition. However, FIFA, at a meeting held on January 9 and 10, 2017, at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, expanded the competition to allow the participation of 48 teams/countries from the current 32 teams competing for the 18-karat gold trophy.
The 48-team version of the competition is set to debut at the 2026 edition of the FIFA World Cup, which Canada, Mexico would host, and the United States after their joint bid defeated Morocco’s bid during the voting for host selection which took place during the 68th FIFA congress on June 13, 2018.
On Thursday, March 30, 2017, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the presidents of the six football confederations met and agreed on slot allocation for the new 48-team format. The FIFA Council ratified the slot allocation at its meeting on May 9, 2017, in Bahrain.
CAF was allocated nine direct slots, Asian Football Confederation (AFC) got eight direct slots, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) got 16 direct slots, Oceania Football Association (OFA) got one direct slot, and the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), the Confederation of North, Central, American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) got six direct slots each.
This gives room for an intercontinental playoff for the remaining two slots. The playoff would involve a team from each of the confederations except UEFA and one additional team from the confederation of the host country.
From the above allocation, Africa has nine sure slots, while one more African country will head to an intercontinental playoff involving five other countries worldwide. Two countries in the playoff will qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
So far, FIFA has not mentioned anywhere that a semi-final spot would increase the slot of a country’s confederation at the next edition.
Conclusion
The claim by Africa Facts Zone is wrong. Africa won’t get 11 slots at the 2026 FIFA World Cup because Morocco qualified for the semi-final of the 2022 edition. Africa will get nine direct slots and have the chance of having one more country in the competition through a playoff.
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