Bafana Bafana on the brink of history

Bafana Bafana is one win away from qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

This comes after they claimed a point in a 1-1 draw against Nigeria in Bloemfontein at the beginning of September, increasing their ranking to 55th worldwide and ninth in Africa.

Should they successfully qualify, it would be the first time they have been able to do so on points since 2002, seeing as the team was automatically included in the tournament in 2010 because it was the host nation.

With only Zimbabwe and Rwanda left to play, if the team can maintain their form, it should be able to secure a ticket to next year’s tournament in the United States.

The draw against the Super Eagles, currently ranked sixth in Africa, was the first time Bafana Bafana had dropped points in the qualifiers since their previous match against them in June 2024, ending in a 1-1 draw.

South Africa also lost by two goals to nil against Rwanda in matchday two of the qualifiers, the team’s only defeat against its Group C opponents in the Africa qualifying round.

Group C includes, ranked according to points, South Africa (17), Benin (14), Nigeria (11), Rwanda (11), Lesotho (6), and Zimbabwe (4).

Bafana Bafana’s next two games take place at the beginning of October, where the squad will first take on Zimbabwe away on the ninth and then Rwanda at home on the thirteenth.

“We need one victory and we have two opportunities, so let’s try to qualify as soon as possible,” head coach Hugo Broos said after the match against Nigeria.

However, South Africa’s campaign to qualify for the biggest football tournament in the world has not been without controversy.

Broos fielded Teboho Mokoena in their 2-0 victory against Lesotho in March earlier this year.

However, South Africa failed to realise that the Mamelodi Sundowns player was suspended following two yellow cards in previous matches.

This caused Lesotho to appeal to FIFA to subtract points from Bafana Bafana. Nigeria soon hopped on the bandwagon, demanding that the global football body take action.

However, the teams failed to lodge an official complaint, which meant that when FIFA released its latest list of sanctions on 15 September, South Africa had no pending incidents.

2026 World Cup

The 23rd edition of the tournament, which takes place every four years, will be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Most matches will be played in the US, with Mexico and Canada as auxiliary hosts.

This will be the first time that more than one nation has hosted the tournament since 2002, when it was held in Korea and Japan.

South Africa, which qualified for the tournament, narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages, with Slovenia progressing ahead of it only because it had scored more goals.

The 2026 World Cup will also be the first time more than 32 teams have been included in the competition, with 48 squads being able to qualify.

This will not affect the number of games played by each team, as FIFA has expanded the number of groups rather than the number of teams in a group.

However, this will increase the total number of games played throughout the tournament from 64, as in the past seven tournaments, to 104.

South Africa’s history in previous World Cups

It only took seven years after readmission onto the international stage for Bafana Bafana to qualify for a FIFA World Cup tournament.

After failing to qualify for the 1994 edition of the tournament held in the US, South Africa succeeded in their next attempt, claiming a ticket to France 1998.

A defeat to the hosts and draws against Denmark and Saudi Arabia saw them exit the tournament in the group stages.

While managing to qualify for the next World Cup in 2002, Bafana Bafana met the same fate as they had four years earlier and failed to progress to the knockout stages.

It took the South Africans another eight years before making it into the tournament again. 

However, this time, it was only because they were hosting the tournament, with the two years building up to the competition, which was commonly called the country’s “darkest period in international football since readmission.”

The team came inches from progressing to the knockout stages of the competition, securing a 2-0 victory over 2006 tournament winners France, but based on goal difference, it missed out on second place in the group.

This made South Africa the first World Cup host nation to be knocked out in the group stages. Qatar became the second in 2022.

Since then, they have continuously failed to qualify for the tournament. However, only two matches stand between Hugo Broos’s team and disrupting this trend.