Hugo Broos confident South Africa will top Nigeria and other challengers for 2026 World Cup ticket
South Africa national team Head Coach Hugo Broos has expressed confidence in his teams ability to top Nigeria and other challengers for a 2026 FIFA World Cup spot.
On Thursday July 13 at the CAF draw in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana was placed in Group C against Super Eagles of Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Benin, Rwanda and Lesotho.
South Africa and Nigeria are tipped as heavyweights and favourites to clinch the sole ticket from group C, with Hugo Broos expressing confidence in his teams ability to go all the way.
“The away games will be very important in a group like ours, but now a little bit more because we have five difficult away games for different reasons,” Broos told www.safa.net.
“I think it is possible for South Africa to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup first in the group. If you see the progress we have made in the last two years, you cannot compare those qualifiers (for the 2026 World Cup) with the qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. We are better now, we have a better team now. So okay, I am confident.”
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers will begin in November 2023 and run until November 2025 with the top teams from the nine groups automatically qualifying for the tournament as Africa’s representatives.
In it’s enlarged format, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be jointly hosted in Canada, Mexico and the United States of America.
