{"id":94922,"date":"2025-12-08T14:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tv.guardian.ng\/?p=94922"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:50:22","slug":"2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 FIFA World Cup: balanced routes for African teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"dailymotion-player\"><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/x1ee8e.js\" data-video=\"k2V0XI7qXPd40JEnz3g\"><\/script><\/div><br><br><p>\nThe 2026 Men&#8217;s World Cup draw has taken place, and we now know which countries will be competing in the group stages. Nine African teams are participating in this edition, maybe 10 depending on the runoff results, and everyone is excited about who ended up where. Highly anticipated matches include Ivory Coast vs Germany in Group E, Senegal vs France in Group I, and Morocco vs Brazil in Group C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Men&#8217;s World Cup draw has taken place, and we now know which countries will be competing in the group stages. Nine African teams are participating in this edition, maybe 10 depending on the runoff results, and everyone is excited about who ended up where. Highly anticipated matches include Ivory Coast vs Germany in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gam_disable_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1140],"tags":[39446,39454],"class_list":["post-94922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-african-teams"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2026 FIFA World Cup: balanced routes for African teams - GuardianTV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 2026 Men&#039;s World Cup draw has taken place, and we now know which countries will be competing in the group stages. Nine African teams are participating in this edition, maybe 10 depending on the runoff results, and everyone is excited about who ended up where. Highly anticipated matches include Ivory Coast vs Germany in Group E, Senegal vs France in Group I, and Morocco vs Brazil in Group C.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2026 FIFA World Cup: balanced routes for African teams - GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2026 Men&#039;s World Cup draw has taken place, and we now know which countries will be competing in the group stages. Nine African teams are participating in this edition, maybe 10 depending on the runoff results, and everyone is excited about who ended up where. Highly anticipated matches include Ivory Coast vs Germany in Group E, Senegal vs France in Group I, and Morocco vs Brazil in Group C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/tv\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GuardianTV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T14:50:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/tv.guardian.ng\/2025\/12\/cup.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abiodun Ogundairo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abiodun Ogundairo\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a7ea396ab9bae73d4845496dbad885f1\"},\"headline\":\"2026 FIFA World Cup: balanced routes for African teams\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T14:50:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":86,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gtvcdn.guardian.ng\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/cup.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2026 FIFA World Cup\",\"African teams\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/\",\"name\":\"2026 FIFA World Cup: balanced routes for African teams - GuardianTV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/guardian.ng\\\/tv\\\/2026-fifa-world-cup-balanced-routes-for-african-teams\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/gtvcdn.guardian.ng\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/cup.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T14:50:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"The 2026 Men's World Cup draw has taken place, and we now know which countries will be competing in the group stages. 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