Bafana wait to hear Cup fate

SOUTH Africa will know the identity of their opponents in the qualifiers for the 2015 African Nations Cup when the draw is held in Cairo on Sunday.

Bafana Bafana will enter the qualifiers at the pool phase, having been handed a bye through the opening two rounds, one of 21 countries at the top of the CAF rankings who do not have to go through the preliminaries.

However, they will not be among the top seeds for the draw, which means the potential of being handed a Ghana, Nigeria or Cote d’Ivoire in the qualifiers is strong.

South Africa are ranked 13th by the Confederation of African Football in a special poll of recent past Nations Cup results to be used to determine the placing for the draw. Had Bafana not fallen out at the quarterfinal stage of the last Nations Cup last year, the country would have been seeded.

But the good news is the top two qualify from each of the seven qualifying groups, along with best third-placed side and hosts Morocco, will go to make up a field of 16 for the finals from January 17 to February 7 next year.

For South Africa, they will start in September and are jammed into a three-month period, concluding in mid-November.

The other 28 countries who did not receive a bye must participate in two rounds of knockout matches from May to August to be whittled down to seven, who then join the top 21 in the group stage.

South Africa’s group matches are scheduled for September 5-6, September 10, October 10-11, October 15, November 14-15 and finally November 19.

Safa president Danny Jordaan will be South Africa’s sole representative at Sunday’s draw, with the organisation having chosen not to send coach Gordon Igesund as well, which would be usual practice.

Igesund’s contract with Safa expires in August and at this stage it seems unlikely he will still be in charge of the side come the start of the qualifiers.