Bafana Bafana have learnt their opponents for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers after the draw took place on Thursday afternoon in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The 54 member associations of CAF have been divided into nine groups of six teams each. Each team will play a total of 10 matches as they will all face each other twice [home and away].
The nine group winners will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup while the four best group runners-up will take part in a play-off stage to determine CAF’s representative at the FIFA play-off tournament.
According to FIFA, “the FIFA play-off 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/Coca-Cola 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.”
The World Cup qualifiers will be played over 10 matchdays in the upcoming two years: 13-21 November 2023; 3-11 June 2024; 17-25 March 2025; 1-9 September 2025; 6-14 October 2025; 10-18 November 2025 [Play-offs].
BAFANA BAFANA LEARN FIFA WORLD CUP OPPONENTS
Hugo Broos’ men are going to be up against the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Lesotho after they were stacked up together in Group C.
FULL 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS DRAW FOR AFRICA
GROUP A
1 – Egypt
2 – Burkina Faso
3 – Guinea-Bissau
4 – Sierra Leone
5 – Ethiopia
6 – Djibouti
GROUP B
1 – Senegal
2 – Congo DR
3 – Mauritania
4 – Togo
5 – Sudan
6 – South Sudan
GROUP C
1 – Nigeria
2 – South Africa
3 – Benin
4 – Zimbabwe
5 – Rwanda
6 – Lesotho
GROUP D
1 – Cameroon
2 – Cabo Verde
3 – Angola
4 – Libya
5 – Eswatini
6 – Mauritius
GROUP E
1 – Morocco
2 – Zambia
3 – Congo
4 – Tanzania
5 – Niger
6 – Eritrea
GROUP F
1 – Côte d’Ivoire
2 – Gabon
3 – Kenya
4 – The Gambia
5 – Burundi
6 – Seychelles
GROUP G
1 – Algeria
2 – Guinea
3 – Uganda
4 – Mozambique
5 – Botswana
6 – Somalia
GROUP H
1 – Tunisia
2 – Equatorial Guinea
3 – Namibia
4 – Malawi
5 – Liberia
6 – Sao Tome and Principe
GROUP I
1 – Mali
2 – Ghana
3 – Madagascar
4 – Central African Republic
5 – Comoros
6 – Chad
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