The venue for the international friendly match between Bafana Bafana clash against Eswatini has been revealed.
Last week, SA coach Hugo Broos announced a 23-man squad for the two upcoming friendlies against the neighbouring country Eswatini and Côte d’Ivoire.
The two matches serve as preparations for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers that will take place in November. And in January next year, the nation will take part in the AFCON that will be staged in Côte d’Ivoire.
FNB STADIUM TO HOST BAFANA BAFANA VS ESWATINI
The match between Bafana and Sihlangu Semnikati will be at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, FARPost has learnt.
Last month, Gauteng also hosted the two SA friendlies between Namibia and DR Congo at Orlando Stadium. And there were thousands of empty seats with Bafana fans not attending in numbers.
This prompted questions by other cities’ football enthusiasts on why Bafana matches are not taken to other provinces.
The SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao revealed that they had approached other provinces for last month’s friendlies. However, they didn’t welcome the opportunity to host the matches due to various reasons.
She also stated the costs become double when they take the games outside the Gauteng province.
SAFA CEO ON WHY BAFANA BAFANA ALWAYS PLAY IN GAUTENG
“There are various reasons,” she told Thabiso Mosia on Radio2000.
“I think overall there is also fatigue because people are complaining that we are playing a lot of our games in Gauteng.
“I can assure you that we had approached quite a number of provinces to host us for these two games because we know that people in Free State are really interested, we know the people in Cape Town, [too].
“We approached the City of Cape Town, but they told us the stadium is still under renovation, so they couldn’t host us.
“We approached KwaZulu-Natal, they had other games happening. The other provinces didn’t really come back to us in terms of the hosting because we knew that a lot of them talk about hosting us, but if they don’t put the letter of commitment on the table, it makes it a little bit difficult for us as an association to leave the [Gauteng] province.
“Because the costs kind of double once you leave Johannesburg. No one was willing to take the game.
“I must thank the Gauteng province, the Premier Panyaza Lesufi has always put up his hand whenever we’ve looked for a host, to say that he’s willing to host us here.
‘IT’S ABOUT OTHER PROVINCES COMING ON BOARD’
“But, obviously we want to rotate the games. It’s a national team, everyone wants to see the national team. But it’s about the provinces coming on board with a letter of commitment to assist us with some of the costs that we are faced [with].
“So that we can leave the province and people in other provinces can see Bafana play and Banyana as well.”
RELATED STORY: Kaizer Chiefs midfielder called up to Bafana to replace Percy Tau
