Afcon helps Bafana Bafana climb up the Fifa rankings

Bafana Bafana have risen two more places to number 70 in the world following their quarterfinal exit at the Africa Cup of Nations‚ but continental champions Algeria have enjoyed a quantum leap in their positioning.

Bafana lost to Ivory Coast‚ Morocco and Nigeria at the finals‚ but their wins over lowly Namibia and hosts Egypt have been enough to see them climb rather than fall in the rankings.

They have also moved up one place on the African list ahead of Guinea‚ and also remain the top side in the Southern African region.

Had Bafana Bafana managed to leap into the top 10 on the African continent‚ then they would have been one of the top seeds for Saturday's 2022 World Cup qualifier draw‚ theoretically earning a smoother path to Qatar.

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Cup of Nations finalists Senegal remain the top team on the continent in terms of ranking‚ followed by Tunisia and Nigeria.

Champions Algeria jumped a staggering 28 places to number 40 in the world and fourth on the Africa list‚ ahead of Morocco‚ who still climbed six places despite their early exit in Egypt.

There was bad news for Zimbabwe's plethora of national team stars though as they slipped down a place to number 27 in Africa and now face a potentially tricky preliminary tie in September before the group stages of the World Cup qualifiers.

They were overtaken by Central Africa Republic.

Round one of the qualifiers sees the lowest ranked 28 member associations play knockout matches‚ with the 14 winners advancing to round two.

That will be played as a group phase between March 2020 and October 2021‚ where the 14 winners of round one join the 26 other CAF nations to form ten groups of four member associations‚ with the ten group winners advancing to round three.

That final round is a straight knockout between the 10 sides to see which five teams will appear in Qatar.

Brazil's Copa America win means they climbed above world champions France to number two on the global list‚ but are still behind Belgium in first position.

England and Uruguay are the other two sides in the top five.