Bafana Bafana will continue to reap the benefits of their third-place finish at the AFCON finals by starting out the qualifiers for next year’s tournament in the top tier.
Hugo Broos – who will remain the head coach until the expiry of his contract in 2026 – guided Bafana to a bronze medal finish in Cote d’Ivoire against all odds.
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This was South Africa’s best finish at the tournament since the year 2000.
The benefit of that medal finish has been that Bafana have moved up to the top 10 nations on the continent according to the FIFA rankings.
This has then had the consequence of putting Bafana in the seeded class for the start of the AFCON qualifiers.
That next AFCON finals will be in Morocco in July next year (2025).
Instead of starting out in Pot 2 like they did in the previous qualifiers when they had Morocco in their qualifying group, Bafana will be in the first pot along with the cream of the continent.
This means avoiding being in the same group as Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and DR Congo who are the top 12 ranked nations.
While the draw date for the qualifiers is yet to be confirmed by CAF, the continental mother body will use the rankings just like they did for the preliminary rounds played in March.
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Forty-eight countries will be divided into 12 groups of four, with the top two qualifying.
The six group stages matches will start in September and end in November.
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