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Cape Town - Bafana Bafana could be seeded for their Brazil 2014 Soccer World Cup qualifying campaign when the draw takes place in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
FIFA will release their latest team rankings on Wednesday, with South Africa needing to stay as one of the continent's top-10 ranked countries to avoid a more complicated route to Brazil. Bafana are currently seventh in Africa and 47th in the world.
As per the Confederation of African Football's format for World Cup qualifiers, the 24 lowest-ranked African countries out of 52 will play a home-and-away knockout eliminator. The remaining 40 teams will be drawn into 10 groups of four, while those top 10 teams will be seeded in pot one. The group winners progress to a final two-leg knockout round to decide the five African qualifiers.
South African Football Association vice-president Danny Jordaan explained that Bafana dropped nine places from 38th in the world in the most recent FIFA rankings as a result of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, despite being unbeaten this year.
He told the Times Live: "Normally, when teams play in continental competitions where they play lots of games and win matches that count for more points, they progress up the rankings."
FIFA will release their latest team rankings on Wednesday, with South Africa needing to stay as one of the continent's top-10 ranked countries to avoid a more complicated route to Brazil. Bafana are currently seventh in Africa and 47th in the world.
As per the Confederation of African Football's format for World Cup qualifiers, the 24 lowest-ranked African countries out of 52 will play a home-and-away knockout eliminator. The remaining 40 teams will be drawn into 10 groups of four, while those top 10 teams will be seeded in pot one. The group winners progress to a final two-leg knockout round to decide the five African qualifiers.
South African Football Association vice-president Danny Jordaan explained that Bafana dropped nine places from 38th in the world in the most recent FIFA rankings as a result of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, despite being unbeaten this year.
He told the Times Live: "Normally, when teams play in continental competitions where they play lots of games and win matches that count for more points, they progress up the rankings."
