Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: FIFA, Football, Football World Cup, FIFA World Cup
Ben McCrum
FIFA were forced to step in and make a major decision after one country failed to show up for this World Cup qualifying fixture.
In just eight months, 48 of the best national teams in football will kick off across various stadiums in North America for the eagerly-anticipated 2026 FIFA World Cup.
As it stands, just 20 of the teams set to play in the competition have qualified, with the remaining 28 set to be decided across a series of qualification matches and play-offs in the coming months.
The likes of England, France, Germany and Spain are all set to play qualifier matches during the ongoing international break, with nations outside of Europe also facing off to decide who will travel to the competition next summer.
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But there is one nation that decided against travelling to compete in a qualification match, forcing FIFA to step in and set a clear precedent for missing games.
When the World Cup kicks off in June, there will be at least nine nations from the Confederation of African Football competing, with another one potentially qualifying if they can earn the spot through an inter-confederation play-off.
To settle who goes to the World Cup, CAF teams were drawn into nine groups of six with the winner of each group directly qualifying and the four best group runners-up participating in play-offs to decide which team will advance to the inter-confederation play-offs
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As part of these groups, Niger were set to play a match against Congo last summer, but the match was postponed after Congo decided not to travel for the match, despite it being their home game.
After their stadium in Brazzaville was deemed not to have met hosting requirements, Congo were asked to travel to Kinshasa, the capital of neighbouring country Democratic Republic of Congo, for their home fixture.
While Niger made the trip for the game, Congo decided against doing so, forcing FIFA to make the tough call to award a 3-0 win to the visitors.
"The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to declare the match lost by forfeit 3-0 by the representative team of Congo," FIFA said in a statement.
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Although FIFA would have no doubt hoped that the incident with Niger and Congo would have been a one-off, this was not the case.
On Thursday night, Malawi were set to host Equatorial Guinea at the Bingu National Stadium in their capital Lilongwe.
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However, just hours before the game was scheduled to begin the Football Association of Malawi announced that it had been called off due to "unforeseen travel complications" for their opponents.
According to African football reporter Micky Jnr, Equatorial Guinea players refused to travel to the game after their journey to the game had been pushed back to the afternoon of matchday, meaning they would have had to warm up on the plane.
Although FIFA has not yet confirmed what they intend to do about the cancelled match, many have assumed that it will be treated exactly the same as the match between Niger and Congo.
If that were to be the case, Malawi would move to 13 points, just two behind second-place Namibia with one game left to go, giving them a chance of making the play-offs.