World Cup qualification has done nothing to bolster South Africa’s world ranking, with Bafana Bafana actually slipping two places according to the latest ranking issued by FIFA.
South Africa has gone down two places from 59th to 61st in the world, despite booking a berth at next year’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the US, and also beating Zambia 3-1 in a friendly on Gqeberha last Saturday.
The drop in ranking, however, is not likely to influence South Africa’s position at the World Cup draw in Washington on 5 December.
There, the country is set to be in the third pot, as the 48 teams are divided into 12 groups of four teams each.
Pot 1 will consist of the three hosts and the top nine teams in the latest FIFA world rankings, which are in order: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
Mexico has been placed in Group A and will play the opening match of the tournament at Estadio Azteca on 11 June. Canada and the United States have been placed in Groups B and D, respectively. They will play the third and fourth matches of the tournament, respectively, both on 12 June.
Pots 2, 3, and 4 will consist of the remaining teams according to the rankings. The 12 groups will be drawn by selecting one team from each of the four pots; however, two teams from the same confederation cannot be put in the same group except for Europe.
The other pots for the draw will look like this:
Pot 2: Croatia (10), Morocco (11), Colombia (13), Uruguay (16), Switzerland (17), Japan (18), Senegal (19), Iran (20), South Korea (22), Ecuador (23), Austria (24), Australia (26)
Pot 3: Norway (29), Panama (30), Egypt (34), Algeria (35), Scotland (36), Paraguay (39), Tunisia (40), Ivory Coast (42), Uzbekistan (50), Qatar (51), Saudi Arabia (60), South Africa (61)
Pot 4: Jordan (66), Cape Verde (68), Ghana (72), Curaçao (82), Haiti (84), New Zealand (86) plus the European playoff winners and the two inter-confederation play-off winners.
The draw for those playoffs is being conducted in Zurich later on Thursday.