Bafana mentor Hugo Broos Image: Source (@ThjomasMlambo/Twitter)
Bafana Bafana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers opponents revealed!
Bafana Bafana has learnt their opponents for their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and it won’t be easy at all.
Bafana mentor Hugo Broos Image: Source (@ThjomasMlambo/Twitter)
Bafana Bafana has learnt their opponents for their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and it won’t be easy at all.
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Hugo Broos’ men are in Group C alongside Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Benin, and Rwanda – the matches will be played over two legs.
The winners of each of the nine African groups will automatically qualify for the 2026 edition of the global showpiece.
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However, there will still be a chance for the four best runners-up from the nine groups to make it to the US, Mexico and Canada for the finals.
Those four best runners-up will play in the playoffs to determine the 10th team that will join the rest of the nine African teams that would have qualified automatically.
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2026 FIFA WORLD QUALIFYING GROUPS IN FULL
Group A: Egypt, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Djibouti
Group B: Senegal, Congo DR, Mauritania, Togo, Sudan, South Sudan
Group C: South Africa, Nigeria, Benin, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Lesotho
Group D: Cameroon, Cape Verde, Angola, Libya, Eswatini, Mauritius
Group E: Eritrea, Zambia, Congo, Tanzania, Morocco, Niger
Group F: Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, The Gambia, Burundi, Seychelles
Group G: Algeria, Guinea, Uganda, Mozambique, Botswana, Somalia
Group H: Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Namibia, Malawi, Liberia, Sao Tome & Principe
Group I: Chad, Mali, Ghana, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros
2026 FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS: THE DATES
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers will be played over 10 matchdays over the next two years, with the playoffs scheduled for November 2025.
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The first batch of the qualifiers will take place between 13-21 November 2023, while the second batch will be from 3-11 June 2024.
In March 2025, those qualifiers are scheduled for between the 13th and 21st, while the next batch is penciled for 1-9 September 2025.
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The winners of the nine groups will then be determined on 6-14 October 2025, a month before the kick-off of the playoffs.
