Bafana Bafana will go into the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers draw faced with the desperation of qualification under the new format.
The 2026 tournament will be the first to be hosted by three countries with USA, Mexico, and Canada all staging matches in 16 cities.
READ | Sundowns' foreign quota conundrum following latest additions
This will also be the first competition featuring 48 countries.
CAF has been allocated nine guaranteed spots – up from five when the World Cup finals had 32 countries.
There is yet another spot available for CAF but that will come via the inter confederation play-offs against one team from all other confederations except UEFA.
In May, the CAF Executive Committee announced a new qualification format that will have teams drawn into nine groups of six teams to play on a home and away basis from November 13, 2023 to October 14, 2025.
The winner of each group will qualify for the World Cup.
Then with the four best ranked group runners-up they will go into a play-off to determine the team to advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.
Bafana last played at the World Cup finals as hosts in 2010 and last qualified in 2002 with their only ever previous qualification coming in 1998.
The senior national team failed to qualify for the 1994, 2006, 2014, and 2018 tournaments.
The 2026 qualifiers draw will be conducted on Thursday, July 13 in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (17h00) just after the 45th CAF Ordinary Assembly.
Bafana goes into the draw ranked outside the top nine countries on the continent leaving them at the risk of being grouped with any of Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameron, Mali, and Cote d'Ivoire.
The second tier of countries has Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Cape Verde, DRC, Guinea, Zambia, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea.
You must be Sign In to read and post comments.
Click HERE to register!