Why Bafana’s Morocco Match Matters For FIFA World Cup Qualifiers

South Africa Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan has explained why Bafana Bafana will have to beat Morocco to improve their position in the FIFA world ranking ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualifying draw in Benin next month .

Even though the game could be seen as a dead-rubber to both nations after they qualified for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations, it means a lot for Bafana.

If Bafana beat the Atlas Lions at FNB Stadium on Saturday it will likely improve their FIFA rankings since Morocco are the highest-ranked African team after making history at the World Cup finals last year, becoming the first African nation to reach the last four.

During the group stages in Qatar, Morocco beat Belgium, drew with Croatia and beat Canada to top the group. In the round of 16, they beat Spain on penalties and then Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal in the quarter-final to reach the semi-finals.

However, they were stopped by 2018 winners France, who beat them 2-0, before the latter lost to Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the final. Morocco then lost to Croatia in the third-place play-off for the bronze medal.

Morocco also defeated Brazil in a friendly in March, and they are currently ranked 11th in the world and number one in Africa. Meanwhile, Bafana are ranked 66 in the world, 12th in Africa.

With nine groups of four nations for the 2027 FIFA World Cup 2027 qualifiers, Bafana will have to be in the top nine in Africa to avoid facing nations such as Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.  

“That is what we said in the beginning,” Jordaan told iDiski Times when asked about the significance and the impact of the Morocco game.

“We said we have to qualify for the AFCON (in Ivory Coast next year), it is a must because in the 2026 World Cup, there will be nine teams from Africa (increase from five since the World Cup 2027 will have 48 nations).

“In the other words, the team that is ranked from number one to number nine will be the top ranked team in each group (pots).”

As things stands, with Bafana in 12th position in Africa, they will be in pot two, if their FIFA rankings don’t change.

“We must make pot 1 so that we can be in top rankings and we can only get there by winning. We have won 10 consecutive matches and people forget that. Bafana is playing against the best team on the African continent, so it’s not going to be an easy match.

– Advertisement –

“But we want to see the kind of spirit that will give us for two things: one for the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast and two to our program for the 2026 World Cup qualifications.”        

CAF confirmed last month that the official draw of the African qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be on 12 July 2023 in Cotonou, Benin, while also introducing a new qualification format, with nine CAF nations qualifying for the tournament instead of just four.