Only four of the 15 teams in the Africa Cup of Nations have not played in the World Cup
Since 1957, the African Football Championship has gone through more than 70 years, before the Europa League and 27 years before the World Cup. However, African football clubs are very stubborn and tend to ignore the rules. Although it doesn't have as many World Cups as it has in its history, Africa has held 34 times so far, far more than any previous one. This is definitely tied to the biennial World Cup in Africa. The African Football League has been held for so many years, and of course there have been quite a few championships. So far, 15 teams have won the African League, which is far more than the World Cup, Europa League and Asian Cup.
The teams that qualify for the African World Cup are undoubtedly the best in African football. In the World Cup, those teams will be African teams. But the reality is that 4 out of 15 teams have not yet played in the World Cup.
Case in point: the 2012 World Cup in Africa, where Zambia won the championship in an astonishing manner. At that time, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria were the three best teams in African football, but Zambia suddenly appeared and defeated Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in a row to win the Africa Cup of Nations.
If there were many disappointments in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, the only surprise in Zambia in 2012 was the black whistle. There is no doubt that this Africa Cup of Nations will be another Zambia.
However, Zambia was unable to participate in the 2014 World Cup after qualifying for the African Championship in 2012, which shows that there is still a big difference between World Cup qualification and African cup competitions.
For the other three countries, all three of them won the championship early on, and there are only a handful of African countries in Africa that have participated in the World Cup, so they are not strong enough to participate in the World Cup.
When it comes to Ethiopia now, a lot of people don't know much about it because they don't have much influence in African football. However, Ethiopia was still positive in the early stages of the Africa Cup of Nations. The Africa World Cup is a modest tournament, with only three or four teams participating, and Ethiopia has always been on the list. They won their 3rd World Cup in Africa. But in the 1960s, none of the African teams participated. And now, for Ethiopia, the chances of participating in the World Cup are even more slim. Despite the huge increase in the number of players, their place in the world of football has been greatly reduced.
The Congolese (Brazzaville), who won the African National Cup in 1972, did not appear in the World Cup. It is worth mentioning that in the 1974 World Cup in South Africa, the other African team was not Congo (Brazzaville), but the Democratic Republic of the Congo (i.e. Zaire) was known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
And then there is Sudan. In 1970, Sudan won the African World Cup and hosted the African World Cup for the first time. Like Congo (Brazzaville), in the 1970s, they didn't make it to the World Cup in South Africa. Now, you can imagine how difficult it is to get the chance to get into the World Cup.
The four teams mentioned above, or Zambia right behind them, are all expected to compete in the 2026 World Cup in South Africa. After all, none of the other three teams made it to the top 100 in the world rankings, with Zambia only 84th. Africa is currently down 95th place, so Zambia is lucky to win the 2012 Africa World Cup and will advance to the next round.