Bafana Bafana's entrance for the AFCON finals draw will come with a preferable group seat following their steady rise under Hugo Broos.
The draw is confirmed for next Monday, January 27 in Rabat, Morocco with the tournament to run from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, in the same North African country.
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Of interest for Bafana is that they will take a place in Pot 2 for the draw – an improvement from the Pot 3 that they occupied ahead of the previous tournament in Cote d'Ivoire, where they went on to finish with a bronze medal.
With the Pot placings to be determined by the latest FIFA rankings, Bafana will be behind Morocco (14), Senegal (17), Egypt (33), Algeria (37), Nigeria (44), and Cote d'Ivoire, (46) who are in Pot 1.
Pot 2 has Cameroon (49), Mali (51), Tunisia (52), South Africa (57), DR Congo (61), and Burkina Faso (66).
From Pot 3, there will be Gabon (84), Angola (85), Zambia (87), Uganda (88), Equatorial Guinea (93), and Benin (94).
The last Pot will have Mozambique (96), Comoros (103), Tanzania (106), Sudan (113), Zimbabwe (121), and Botswana (136).
Bafana's group will feature one country from Pot 1, Pot 3, and Pot 4.
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CAF will divide the 24 teams into six groups with the top six (including host nation) ranked nations seeded, which means they avoid playing each other at that stage.
Bafana are through to their 12th appearance at the biennial competition, doing so after an impressive bronze medal finish at the previous tournament held in Cote d'Ivoire.