Bafana Bafana have found out which five teams they will have to overcome to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The team of Hugo Broos are on a good run, being unbeaten in their last seven games, winning five, including their impressive 2-1 over Africa’s highest-ranked team Morocco recently.
However, despite the upward trend and Broos seemingly having settled on the core of his squad, Bafana’s FIFA ranking did not improve much.
They entered tonight’s draw of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African Preliminaries Qualifiers in 62nd worldwide and 12th position on the continent, meaning they were placed in drawing pot two.
With the revamped format of the African World Cup qualifiers, each of the 53 member associations was drawn into one of nine groups, with the winners of those groups automatically qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.
Meanwhile, the four best runners-up from the groups will play in a new CAF Play-Off tournament. The winner of the CAF Play-Off Tournament will play in the FIFA Play-off Tournament.
South Africa were drawn with in Group V with Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Lesotho.
Full draw of the African World Cup qualifying groups:
Group A: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
Group B: Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan
Group C: Nigeria, South Africa, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
Group D: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, eSwatini, Mauritius
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Group E: Morocco, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Niger, Eritrea
Group F: Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles
Group G: Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia
Group H: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, Sao Tome And Principe
Group I: Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, Chad
