Ben McCrum
FIFA have announced their decision on potentially banning a country from the 2026 World Cup in an official statement.
In just over a year, the 2026 World Cup will get underway across Canada, Mexico and the United States, with 48 countries from across six confederations set to compete for the biggest trophy in football.
Only seven countries have qualified for the tournament so far, with all three host nations, New Zealand, Japan, Iran and Argentina, all confirmed participants.
Qualification for the remaining 41 spots will continue to take place in the coming months, with the final lineup set to be decided by the end of March 2026.
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But before the lineup is finalised, FIFA have announced their decision to lift the suspension of Congo-Brazzaville, handing them a chance of qualifying for the tournament next summer.
The African nation had a sanction imposed in February because of third-party interference in the affairs of Fecofoot, the country's football association.
Because of this, Congo's 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Tanzania and Zambia, which were scheduled to be held in March, were postponed.
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But FIFA are now satisfied that several conditions required to lift the suspension have been met and released an official statement confirming the decision.
It read: "The Bureau of the FIFA Council decided on 14 May 2025 to lift the suspension that was imposed on the Congolese Football Association (FECOFOOT) on 6 February 2025.
"The decision was taken after the conditions requested by the Bureau to lift the suspension of FECOFOOT had been met, including the return of full control of the FECOFOOT headquarters, the Ignié Technical Centre, and the association’s other facilities to the FECOFOOT Executive Committee led by Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas and his administration."
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It is yet to be announced when Congo's postponed fixtures will be played, but with them currently sitting bottom of their qualifying group for the World Cup, it remains unlikely that they will feature in next year's competition.
The final four games of their group campaign are scheduled to take place in September and October, with African play-offs then due to be played in November.