Gabon struggled to get past Mozambique in the previous round of Russian Federation 2018 qualifying, and likewise Mali had to secure a 2-0 win in the second leg of a tie against Botswana to come from behind and reach the group stage.
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Nigeria, who boast the second most World Cup qualifications from Africa with five, have been included among the second seeds.
There grievance seems to have been ignored. worst-case scenario: Bafana do not have fond memories of taking on Algeria, the continent’s No 1 ranked team, who are in Pot 1.
World Football governing body, FIFA has reversed its decision to use a special ranking format to seed African teams for the 2018 world cup qualifiers.
They are in Pot 2 and could easily become another trip to north Africa before Uganda, the highest placed side in Pot 4 according to the Federation Internationale de Football Association rankings, complete what would be a group of death for South Africa.
Having drawn a bye in the first round of the qualifiers, Ghana picked a 2-0 aggregate victory over Comoros last November in the second phase to book their ticket to the third and final round. The team drawn first from Pot 4 will be placed in Group A, and its exact position in the group will be determined by a ball drawn from a second pot that will contain four balls with the position numbers 1-4. The two teams will again face each other after being drawn into Group E together along with Uganda and Congo, whose coach Pierre Lechantre is aware that it will be very tough for the Diables Rouges to qualify. The team drawn fourth will be placed in Group D, and its position drawn from the second pot.
This means Egypt remain in Pot 2 alongside Nigeria and Mali.
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Group qualifying starts this October, continues in November and there will be four rounds between August and November 2017.
