1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) section of the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification saw teams competing for two berths in the final tournament in Italy.

26 nations in total entered the qualifying stage. FIFA rejected the entries of Mauritius and Mozambique due to their outstanding debts, leaving 24 nations to contest the qualifying spots. Lesotho, Rwanda and Togo withdrew after the draw for the first round, which took place on 12 December 1987, but before playing a match. Libya won their first round tie and advanced to the second round, but withdrew halfway through that stage, meaning all their results in the group were annulled.

Format

• First Round: Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Zaire, the eight best ranked teams according to FIFA, received byes and advanced to the Second Round directly. The remaining sixteen teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would advance to the Second Round.
• Second Round: The eight winners from the first round were joined by the eight seeded teams and divided into four groups of four teams each. The teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The group winners would advance to the Final Round.
• Final Round: The four remaining teams were paired up to play knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The winners would qualify.

First round

Eight knockout (two-legged) ties were originally required, involving the sixteen lowest ranked African countries. The withdrawals of three teams meant only five ties were actually contested. The eight successful teams advanced to the group format of the second round.

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Angola	2–1	Sudan	0–0	2–1
Zimbabwe	w/o	Lesotho	–	–
Zambia	w/o	Rwanda	–	–
Uganda	2–3	Malawi	1–0	1–3
Libya	3–2	Burkina Faso	3–0	0–2
Ghana	0–2	Liberia	0–0	0–2
Tunisia	5–3	Guinea	5–0	0–3
Gabon	w/o	Togo	–	–

Second round

The eight qualifiers from the first round were joined by the eight highest-ranked CAF teams. The teams were split into four groups of four which played a home-and-away round-robin, with the four group winners advancing to the final round.

Legend
Countries that advanced to the Final Round

Group A

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Algeria 4 3 1 0 6 1 +5 7  Ivory Coast 4 1 2 1 5 1 +4 4  Zimbabwe 4 0 1 3 1 10 −9 1  Libya 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Algeria  – 1 – 0 3 – 0 Ivory Coast  0 – 0 – 5 – 0 Zimbabwe  1 – 2 0 – 0 –

Libya played one match in this group before withdrawing from the competition, annulling their results.

Group B

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Egypt 6 3 2 1 6 2 +4 8  Liberia 6 2 2 2 2 3 −1 6  Malawi 6 1 3 2 3 4 −1 5  Kenya 6 1 3 2 2 4 −2 5

Egypt  – 2 – 0 2 – 0 1 – 0 Kenya  0 – 0 – 1 – 0 1 – 1 Liberia  1 – 0 0 – 0 – 1 – 0 Malawi  1 – 1 1 – 0 0 – 0 –

Group C

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Cameroon 6 4 1 1 9 6 +3 9  Nigeria 6 3 1 2 7 5 +2 7  Angola 6 1 2 3 6 7 −1 4  Gabon 6 2 0 4 5 9 −4 4

Angola  – 1 – 2 2 – 0 2 – 2 Cameroon  1 – 1 – 2 – 1 1 – 0 Gabon  1 – 0 1 – 3 – 2 – 1 Nigeria  1 – 0 2 – 0 1 – 0 –

Group D

Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Tunisia 6 3 1 2 5 5 0 7  Zambia 6 3 0 3 7 6 +1 6  Zaire 6 2 2 2 7 7 0 6  Morocco 6 1 3 2 4 5 −1 5

Morocco  – 0 – 0 1 – 1 1 – 0 Tunisia  2 – 1 – 1 – 0 1 – 0 Zaire  0 – 0 3 – 1 – 1 – 0 Zambia  2 – 1 1 – 0 4 – 2 –

Final round

The four group winners from the second round were drawn into two ties. The winner of each two-legged tie qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Algeria  v  Egypt

8 October 1989

Algeria	0 – 0	Egypt

Stade 17 Juin, Constantine Attendance: 55,000 Referee: Sydney Picon-Ackong (Mauritius)

Egypt  v  Algeria

17 November 1989

Egypt	1 – 0	Algeria
H. Hassan  4'

Cairo Stadium, Cairo Attendance: 100,000 Referee: Ali Bin Nasser (Tunisia)

Egypt won 1–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

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Cameroon  v  Tunisia

8 October 1989

Cameroon	2 – 0	Tunisia
Mfédé  54' Kundé  90+1'

Stade Omnisports, Yaoundé Attendance: 80,000 Referee: Abdelali Naciri (Morocco)

Tunisia  v  Cameroon

19 November 1989

Tunisia	0 – 1	Cameroon
		Omam-Biyik  14'

Stade El Menzah, Tunis Attendance: 45,000 Referee: Badara Sène (Senegal)

Cameroon won 3–0 on aggregate and qualified for the 1990 World Cup.

External links

• Africa Zone at FIFA.com