Bafana Bafana to be pooled with Brazil & Uruguay? South Africa’s 2026 World Cup pot revealed

Bafana Bafana are among the nine African teams that have secured an automatic 2026 FIFA World Cup ticket.

The competition will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19. Ahead of the draw that final will conducted on December 5, the World Football Governing Body, FIFA, has revealed the pots.

“With fewer than 200 days to go until the start of the first-ever 48-team FIFA World Cup, the procedures for determining the composition of the tournament’s 12 unprecedented groups of four have been confirmed,” FIFA said in a statement.

42/48 ✅@aramco | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/HQZoHdXyes

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 19, 2025

“One of the most thrilling milestones on the road to the FIFA World Cup, the Final Draw will bring together coaches and officials from all qualified teams — and those still in contention, where they will discover their opponents in pursuit of ultimate glory.

“The two FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament placeholders, as well as the four European play-off placeholders, will be allocated to pot 4,” they added.

South Africa’s Pot revealed

Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, IR Iran, Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Australia

Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

Pot 4: Jordan, Cabo Verde, Ghana, Curaçao, Haiti, New Zealand, European Play-Off A, B, C and D, FIFA Play-Off Tournament 1 and 2

“The draw will begin with all the teams from pot 1 being drawn to groups A to L. It will then continue with pots 2, 3 and 4 in that order,” FIFA clarified.

Draw constraints, as explained by FIFA

“For pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as the host countries, will be identified by different coloured balls and, when drawn, will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as already established per the match schedule released on 4 February 2024,” they continued.

“The remaining nine top-ranked teams in pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same colour and automatically allocated to position 1 of the group into which they are drawn.

“To ensure competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established when developing the match schedule. In order to have a balanced distribution of the teams, the four highest-ranked teams in the FIFA Men’s Ranking, when drawn, will have the following constraints: the highest-ranked team (Spain) and the second highest-ranked team (Argentina) will be randomly drawn into opposite pathways, and the same principle will apply to the third (France) and fourth (England) highest-ranked teams.

“This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams will not meet before the final,” FIFA further added.

‘Mzansi WILL NOT face another African team in the group stage’

“For pots 2, 3 and 4, each team’s group position will be determined according to a predefined allocation pattern. This pattern is detailed in the table included in the draw procedures document. A team’s position within the group will then be determined by the pot from which they are drawn and by the group into which they are drawn,” FIFA stated.

“In principle, no group will have more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it. This applies to all confederations except UEFA, which is represented by 16 teams. Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it.

“For the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders, in order to comply with FIFA’s general principle to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it, the confederation constraint will be applied to all three teams within each pathway of the two FIFA Play-Off Tournament placeholders in pot 4,” they concluded.