Bafana Shifts Focus To World Cup After AFCON Exit

Following Bafana Bafana’s disappointing exit from the ongoing 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, coach Hugo Broos has set his sights on the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Broos’ side had a decent run in the group stages of the AFCON, securing wins against Angola and Zimbabwe, but ultimately fell short in the round of 16 with a 2-1 loss to Cameroon, a team Broos previously mentored to AFCON glory in 2017.

Upon arrival in South Africa on Wednesday, the Belgian mentor shared his plans for preparing the team for the World Cup.

“You have to prepare for the World Cup and see what went wrong with the preparations for the AFCON, and see what went wrong with the team,” Broos stated.

“These are the analyses I will make next week, and I will make comments and declarations on that.”

Despite the early exit, Broos believes the AFCON experience was valuable for Bafana Bafana, who won bronze medals in the 2023 edition that was held in the Ivory Coast earlier in 2024.

“It was a good experience, even though we lost,” Broos added.

“I always say that a team like South Africa has to be in every AFCON tournament.

“For the moment, we’ve succeeded in that, even though we didn’t play as we did in the last AFCON, but we were there, and we’re also going to the World Cup.

“In the next few years, I see South Africa participating in the AFCON again because those are the levels where you learn a lot.”

Looking ahead to the World Cup, the 1996 African champions have been drawn in Group A alongside co-host nation Mexico, South Korea, and a fourth nation to be confirmed in March between Denmark, North Macedonia, the Czech Republic, and Ireland.

Bafana Bafana will kick off their 2026 World Cup campaign against Mexico on 11 June, in a highly anticipated rematch of the 2010 World Cup opener held in South Africa.