Bafana guaranteed an African heavyweight in World Cup draw

Bafana Bafana are guaranteed one of Africa’s heavyweights in their group when the draw for qualification for the 2026 Fifa World Cup is held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Thursday evening.

The next World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico sees the expansion from 32 to 48 teams, and Africa has nine guaranteed representatives, plus potentially one more via a playoff.

That of course makes the task easier for Bafana to achieve their first World Cup qualification since 2002, and to be at their first finals since hosting the global showpiece in 2010.

But it’s still not necessarily an easy task by any means, either.

The African teams will be drawn into nine six-team groups in the ceremony on Thursday (from 5pm SA time) where the winners qualify. Four best runners-up go into a playoff to be the team to compete in a further intercontinental playoff.

South Africa are in Pot 2, along with Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

That means they are guaranteed being drawn with one of the teams from Pot 1, which are Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali and Ivory Coast.

Bafana might hope for one of Mali, Tunisia, Algeria or even Cameroon from that pot, but even then it’s not an easy ask and the South Africans will need strong results against a big team to reach the World Cup without hoping for a place in the playoffs.

Fifa explained of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) qualification process: “The nine groups will play in a home and away, round-robin, format with each of the group winners qualifying automatically for the Fifa World Cup 2026.

“The four best group runners-up will then compete in a playoff stage to determine Caf’s representative at the Fifa playoff tournament.

“The playoff tournament will feature one team from each of Fifa's six confederations, except Uefa, plus one additional team from the host confederation (Concacaf).

“Two of the six teams will be seeded based on the Fifa World Ranking. The seeded teams will play for a Fifa World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.”

Bafana coach Hugo Broos will hope for a strong showing from the mostly young combination he has been building towards the 2026 World Cup when the South Africans compete in the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January and February.

If they can manage that, they will have more confidence to punch above their weight and upset a bigger team in the World Cup qualifiers. 

Caf 2026 World Cup draw pots

Pot 1: Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Ivory Cast

Pot 2: Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea

Pot 3: Uganda, Benin, Mauritania, Kenya, Congo, Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, Angola

Pot 4: Mozambique, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Malawi, Libya

Pot 5: Niger, Comoros, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Botswana, Liberia 

Pot 6: Lesotho, South Sudan, Mauritius, Chad, São Tomé and Príncipe, Djibouti, Seychelles, Eritrea, Somalia

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