All You Need to Know About FIFA Series 2024 As Hugo Broos’ South Africa Takes Part

• The FIFA Series competition will kick off this year in five different locations
• FIFA intends to help teams organise friendlies outside of their confederations
• Sports Brief explains everything you need to know ahead of the inaugural edition

A host of national teams are set to participate in a new competition organised by FIFA. The competition, dubbed FIFA Series, will be introduced officially in 2026. The world governing body wants to use this year's edition to trial out the format and iron out any teething issues.

The pilot program will have 24 teams from all six federations worldwide playing games in four separate locations during the March international break from 18 to 26. Herein, Sports Brief breaks down the details of the competition.

What is the FIFA Series?

For starters, they will be friendly matches between countries who normally don't have the opportunity to face each other. As FIFA explains, this will boost international cultural interaction through football and promote the sport globally.

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The competition will be held every March during the international break of even years.

How were the teams selected?

FIFA first disclosed plans to introduce the new competition in 2022, and it immediately attracted interest from a couple of its member states. The teams with no commitments or games planned for March 2024 were prioritised for the pilot project.

Which teams will participate in the FIFA Series 2024

Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka will host the inaugural edition. Saudi Arabia will, however, not participate in the games.

Algeria (CAF) will host Andorra (UEFA), Bolivia (CONMEBOL) and South Africa (CAF), while their North African neighbours Egypt (CAF) will host Croatia (UEFA), Tunisia (CAF) and New Zealand (OFC).

Despite not playing, Saudi Arabia will provide two venues for eight teams. The first group will feature Cabo Verde (CAF), Cambodia (AFC), Equatorial Guinea (CAF) and Guyana (Concacaf). The other group will have Guinea(CAF), Bermuda (Concacaf), Brunei Darussalam (AFC) and Vanuatu (OFC).

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Azerbaijan (UEFA) will play host to Bulgaria (UEFA), Mongolia (AFC)and Tanzania (CAF). Sri Lanka, which is the lowest-ranked nation among the participating teams, will play Bhutan (AFC), the Central African Republic (CAF) and Papua New Guinea (OFC).

Why high-ranked teams are not participating in FIFA Series

The other objective of the competition was to help countries which usually struggle to get friendly matches. FIFA's chief of member associations, Kenny Jean-Marie, explained that top teams easily get friendly matches against their fellow top sides.

"When you get lower in the rankings, you find plenty of member associations have never played against a team from another confederation," as quoted by the Athletic.

For instance, this window will see England play five-time World Champions Brazil while 2018 World Champions France meet their predecessors Germany.

FIFA Series 2024 Prize Money

Given that they are friendly matches, there won't be any prize money or trophies at the end. However, FIFA will help the selected countries plan the games and cover operational costs.

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South Africa's Squad for FIFA Series

Sports Brief had earlier reported that South Africa head coach Hugo Broos had unveiled his squad to play in the inaugural edition of the FIFA series.

Bafana Bafana were selected for the pilot phase and will face Algeria, Andorra and Bolivia. The AFCON 2023 bronze medalists have given 10 new names first call-ups in the squad headlined by captain Ronwen Williams.