Bafana seeded in Pot 2 for 2023 Afcon group stage qualifying draw

Bafana Bafana will hope for a kind draw when they are seeded in Pot 2 for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Randburg, Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.

The draw will be held at the studios of pay-channel SuperSport from 5.30pm.

The 48 teams who qualified for the group stages will be drawn into 12 groups and the top two sides from each group qualify for Ivory Coast 2023.

SA, in the second-highest pot, will not avoid the continent's heavyweights from Pot 1, but should be drawn in a group without similar-strength opposition.

Bafana are ranked 69th in the latest Fifa world rankings. With the draw based in the rankings, SA missed being in the top pot by one place as they are ranked 13th in Africa.

Explaining the draw procedure, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) said: “The 48 countries qualified to participate in the second round of the qualifiers have been seeded into four pots based on the official Fifa rankings released on March 31 2022.

“The teams will be drawn into 12 groups of four teams (Group A to L) with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the tournament.

“Hosts, Ivory Coast, will participate in the draw even though they have already secured a place in the tournament, which means only one other team from their group will qualify for the competition.

“Kenya and Zimbabwe, who have been suspended from all football activities globally by Fifa, will be included in the draw despite their temporary bans.

“However, if the suspension is not lifted two weeks before their first match-day of the qualifiers, both associations will be considered losers and eliminated from the competition.

“Consequently, their groups will be composed of three teams with the first and runner-up teams of those groups qualifying for the final tournament.

“As a result of that decision, Kenya and Zimbabwe cannot be drawn in the same group to avoid having one group with only two teams in case the suspension on both associations is not lifted.”

Caf said the draw will be conducted by the director of competitions Samson Adamu, assisted by ex-Bafana and Leeds United captain Lucas Radebe and Ivorian legend Salomon Kalou.

The group stage qualifiers start in June.

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