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Bafana Bafana has retained its position at 57th in the latest FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings released on Thursday.
This comes as no surprise, as the national team did not compete in any international fixtures throughout December.
Consequently, South Africa remains in 10th place within the African rankings, a position that is not ideal as the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations draw approaches. CAF has announced that this draw will take place on 27 January 2025 in Morocco, the host country for the tournament.
Because Bafana Bafana couldn’t attain a top-eight ranking, they will not be seeded for the draw. This may lead to a challenging group stage, where they could face well-ranked African teams such as Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mali, and Tunisia.
In the rescheduled 2023 AFCON held in Ivory Coast earlier this year, Bafana encountered two top-tier teams – Mali and Tunisia, alongside the unseeded and lower-ranked Namibia.
Despite advancing to the knockout rounds, they faced a defeat against Mali in their opening Group E match but went on to beat Namibia and drew with Tunisia, which was enough to secure their progression to the next stage. Ultimately, Bafana Bafana clinched a bronze medal, finishing third for the first time since the 2000 tournament.
The upcoming FIFA World Rankings will be released on 3 April 2025 and will reflect the results of international matches played in March 2025, coinciding with the restart of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the CAF region.
