Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos will finally find out which countries his team will play against at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the USA, Mexico and Canada.
The tournament will take place from June 11 to July 26. On Friday, Broos will be in Washington, DC, for the World Cup draw.
But first, his globetrotting started earlier in the week in his native Belgium, where the coach announced his final squad for this month’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be held in Morocco. From Belgium, he will fly to the US for the draw.
For the Afcon, Bafana are in Group B with Egypt, Angola and Zimbabwe. The South Africans play their first match of the continental tournament against Angola on December 22.
The trio of Mduduzi Shabalala, Iqraam Rayners, and Thabo Moloisane are on standby for the Afcon team that will assemble in Tshwane in the coming days to begin preparations for the tournament.
“It is very important that we have players who know that if something happens with injuries or whatever, we can count on them.
“We’ll ask them to stay fit and train, as they must be ready if something happens. So that’s why I have selected these players and will keep them on standby,” Broos said.
How the draw will be conducted
All 48 teams are placed in pots based on their FIFA world ranking, with teams from each pot drawn into groups until there are 12 groups of four teams each.
The process begins with teams from the highest-ranked pot and continues through each subsequent pot.
Groups labeled A-L can have no more than one team from each region, except for UEFA, Europe’s governing body. Each group must have at least one European team but no more than two.
Mexico, as the host nation playing in the first game of the tournament in Mexico City on June 11, has already been automatically placed in Group A. The United States has been assigned to Group D, while Canada is in Group B.
FIFA has introduced a new system for the knockout stages that will keep the top four seeded teams from facing each other until at least the semifinals.
This approach ensures that Spain, Argentina, France, and England cannot meet before the final four if they win their groups.
What are pots?
Pots are groupings of teams used to organise the draw and ensure competitive balance.
Of the 42 qualified countries, 39 are split into four pots as determined by the November 2025 FIFA Men’s World Rankings. The system works as follows:
Pot 1 contains the tournament’s top seeds: the three host nations (United States, Canada and Mexico), plus the nine highest-ranked qualified teams. This includes Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
Pot 2 features the next 12 highest-ranked teams, including Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, Iran, South Korea, Ecuador, Austria, and Australia.
Pot 3 contains Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
Pot 4 includes Jordan, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand, four European playoff placeholders, and two intercontinental playoff placeholders.
The pot system prevents the strongest teams from facing each other in the group stage while distributing competitive matchups across all groups.
