On Tuesday, 14 October, Bafana Bafana qualified for the FIFA 2026 World Cup by beating Rwanda 3-0 at the Mbombela Stadium. The last time the country participated in a FIFA World Cup was when it hosted it in 2010. The 23rd edition of next year’s biggest FIFA tournament is taking place in North America and is hosted by 3 countries: Canada, United States of America and Mexico.

The road to qualifying was not without humps and sharp curves though. In September, FIFA docked South Africa 3 points for fielding an ineligible player in their match against Lesotho in March. This had Benin, who were second on the log table that South Africa was leading, breathing literally below South Africa’s neck.

This was soon followed by a crunch match against neighbours, Zimbabwe. If Bafana Bafana lost or drew that match and Benin won theirs against Rwanda, this would see Benin move up to position 1 and Bafana Bafana to position 2. That’s exactly what happened. South Africa drew 0-0 with Zimbabwe who remain rooted at the bottom of the table.

What followed was reminiscent of the traumatizingly recent Bafana Bafana history where it had become customary to depend on other teams to win their matches in order for the country to qualify for international tournaments. This period, which called upon pundits and diehards alike to pull out their calculators and do permutations, was upon us again! It was calculated: If Nigeria beats Benin and South Africa beats Rwanda in their final matches, South Africa would move to the top of the table and automatically qualify for the World Cup.

For their troubles, if they beat Benin with enough goals, Nigeria might depose Benin and move to second position to qualify for the “play-offs”. The “play-offs” will be played by the four best runners-up in the tournament. South Africa’s prayers came true when Nigeria indeed beat Benin 4-0 and helped Bafana to gain automatic qualification to the World Cup.