Eritrea pulls team from World Cup qualifiers
The team was due to meet World Cup history makers Morocco in a Group E match on November 16.
Eritrea has withdrawn its national men's team from next week's World Cup qualifiers, the global football governing body FIFA said, without giving further details.
The team was due to meet World Cup history makers Morocco in a Group E match on 16 November.
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"FIFA and CAF can confirm that the Eritrean National Football Federation has withdrawn from the FIFA World Cup 2026 preliminary competition," FIFA said in a statement late Friday.
The group will now be contested by the five remaining teams including Zambia, Congo, Tanzania and Niger.
"All of Eritrea's matches have been cancelled, while the rest of the match schedule for Group E remains unchanged," FIFA said.
Both Eritrea's men's and women's national football teams are not ranked on FIFA's standing "due to not having played at least one match during the last 48 months".
Eritrea's last international kick of a ball was a friendly match against Sudan in January 2020, which they lost 1-0 at home.
Their most recent competitive games were in 2019 during the regional CECAFA Challenge Cup. Five footballers went missing in Uganda during the 2019 tournament, their fate is unknown to this day.
In 2015 Botswana granted asylum to 10 Eritrean footballers who had refused to return home after a match against the national team.
In 2012, 18 Eritrean players claimed asylum in Uganda after a match there. Another six fled while in Angola in 2007 and 12 more did the same in Kenya in 2009.
The nation has been ruled by one man, President Isaias Afwerki since its formal declaration of independence in 1993.
Story by AFP
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