By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Minor River Union (MRU) representation of countries in the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) 2026, 2025 world Cup qualifiers is currently led by the Ivory Coast who has a clear chance to be present in America next year for the world biggest football competition for many national teams.
MRU is a regional organization in West Africa comprised of four countries namely: Liberia Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. As part of the world cup qualifiers requirements for African countries, MRU states paired in different groups have played six games with the 2024 African Cup of nations Champions leading the rest of her three neighbors.
With 16 points on top of Group ‘F’ the Elephants are one of the leading African teams currently participating in the world cup qualifiers. They are the favorite in their group of six countries.
On a competitive scale of goals scored and conceded, the MRU country have built for herself a very confident team with an unmatched composure to many of the countries chasing top spots in the nine groups for automatic qualification to the world cup.
Ivory Coast have scored 14 goals in six matches and conceded none. Statistically this is the best record of goal difference for the entire African component of the world cup qualifiers so far.
Out of the six African countries featuring national team in group ‘F’ the African champions have proven supremacy over Burundi, Seychelle and Gabon plus a back-to-back win over Gambia. In the first round of the competition only Kenya was able to stand firm before Ivory Coast playing their first leg to a goalless draw.
To complete the qualification task, the Ivorians have four matches in September and October to be played equally home and away.
They will welcome Burundi on September 3 this year before flying to Gabon on three day later to reduced the pressure at the top of the group. As Gabon sit second to Ivory Coast in the group, the Elephant will need a win to move a point closer to their travel to the US for the world Cup.
The remaining MRU countries chances to qualify to the upcoming world cup are still over clouded by doubt as both Liberia and Sierra Lone stand third in groups ‘a’ and ‘H’ respectively.
The possibility of Egypt losing the top spot of group ‘A’ stands very slime as they lead with 16 points against Burkina Faso that is 11 points in second place for that group. The situation is now pressuring the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone with just eight points to chase more wins in their remaining four games in order to gain hopes of moving to a possible playoff slot.
On the other hand, though wining against Sao Tome and Principe recently, Liberia has more struggles to improve against their bigger opponents if they are to book a play off slot that could possibly take them to the world Cup.
Lone Star is six clear points under Tunisia the group leader 16 points and third to Namibia with 12 points. Interestingly, these two countries now considered as the biggest rival for Liberia in the qualifiers still have outstanding fixtures with Lone Star to complete the qualification’s campaign.
In terms of placement on respective group tables in the World Cup qualifiers currently, Guinea is the least performing MRU country as per statistics from the competition database.
The French colony have equally won and lose two each of her last six games in the qualifiers and drawing one to hit seven points in fifth place of a group that is being topped by top African side Algeria with 15 points.
With the details provided for the four Manor River Countries in the current qualification campaign of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it is clear to say that Ivory Coast being the current touch bearer of the continent football competition is making full representation of the region with hopes to easily sail through the qualifiers.
As they represent the MRU along with the others that are still hopeful of breaking the barriers ahead, the MRU spirit is upon their shoulders to not only thrive for their country, but also the region and the continent if they book flight to world festival.
