The Confederation of African Football (CAF) clarified that the selection of teams qualified for the African playoff leading to the global playoff in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers was based on the ranking of the best second-placed teams after applying the system of excluding results against the sixth-placed teams in the groups.

According to this system, the Burkina Faso national team lost points earned against the bottom team in their group, which caused them to drop in the overall ranking of group seconds to fifth place, thus losing the opportunity to qualify for the African playoff.

In contrast, the teams from Nigeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon ranked among the top four second-placed teams, leading to two decisive matches (Nigeria against Gabon, and Cameroon against the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to determine the team that qualifies for the global playoff.