1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) explained

Tourney Name:	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)
Dates:	31 May 1996 – 17 August 1997
Num Teams:	36
Confederations:	1
Matches:	91
Goals:	229
Attendance:	2810227
Top Scorer:	Paulão Mamadou Zongo Mike Okoth Origi Vitalis Takawira (5 goals)
Prevseason:	1994
Nextseason:	2002

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:

First round

First leg

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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

width=165 style="text-align:left"	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	GF	width=20	GA	width=20	GD	width=20	Pts
	6	4	1	1	10	4	6	13
	6	4	0	2	10	5	5	12
	6	3	1	2	11	12	−1	10
	6	0	0	6	7	17	−10	0

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Group 2

width=165 style="text-align:left"	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	GF	width=20	GA	width=20	GD	width=20	Pts
	6	5	1	0	10	1	9	16
	6	3	1	2	15	5	10	10
	6	1	1	4	2	10	−8	4
	6	1	1	4	6	17	−11	4

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Group 3

width=165 style="text-align:left"	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	GF	width=20	GA	width=20	GD	width=20	Pts
	6	4	1	1	7	3	4	13
	6	3	1	2	5	5	0	10
	6	2	2	2	7	6	1	8
	6	0	2	4	4	9	−5	2

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

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Group 4

width=165 style="text-align:left"	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	GF	width=20	GA	width=20	GD	width=20	Pts
	6	4	2	0	10	4	6	14
	6	2	4	0	7	4	3	10
	6	1	1	4	6	7	−1	4
	6	1	1	4	6	14	−8	4

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Group 5

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

width=165 style="text-align:left"	Team	width=20	Pld	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	GF	width=20	GA	width=20	GD	width=20	Pts
	6	5	1	0	14	2	12	16
	5	2	1	2	4	6	−2	7
	6	1	3	2	7	7	0	6
	5	0	1	4	1	11	−10	1

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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	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances in FIFA World Cup¹
			1 (1994)
			1 (1978)
			0 (debut)
			3 (1982, 1990, 1994)
			3 (1970, 1986, 1994)