Mashaba to learn SA's path

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba left on Wednesday for Russia to attend tomorrow's draw in St Petersburg for the World Cup qualifiers.

South Africa is among a record 53 nations from the continent who have entered the preliminaries with only Zimbabwe left out after being banned for failing to pay a previous coach.

Bafana will be given a bye from the first round of qualifiers set for October and play their first game on the road to Russia 2018 in the second round next year.

But Mashaba will find out the identity of the potential first opponent when he sits in the audience at the imperial-era Konstantin Palace.

This time Africa's preliminaries will feature two rounds of two-legged knockout matches to whittle the field down to 20 teams for the group phase.

Only the group winners will then advance to the finals in Russia in 2018.

It is a change from the process employed for the 2014 finals when Africa had a single round of knockout matches, followed by an extensive group competition with 10 winners advancing to a round of play-off matches where Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria advanced.

SA failed in the group phase, finishing second behind Ethiopia who then lost to Nigeria for a place at the tournament in Brazil.

For 2018, the 26 lowest ranking teams in Africa, which include neighbours Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, will play in the first round of qualifiers.