CAF-SAFA At Loggerheads Over Afcon Schedule

The South African Football Association (SAFA) are up in arms with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who want Bafana Bafana to play two Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers inside the space of three days next month.

Safa acting chief executive Russell Paul expressed concern at CAF imposition for the national team to play two games and highlighted the demands as too taxing and a dent on their aspirations to qualify for the continental football showpiece.

Caf wants SA to play their opening Group C game against Ghana in Kumasi on Friday‚ November 15 and then host the Sudan two days later at 9pm.

Paul said this was an untenable schedule‚ given South Africa would have to fly back from Ghana on Saturday‚ November 16 and then go straight into their next match the next day.

Instead he is pushing for SA to play in Accra on Thursday‚ November 14‚ allowing the squad to return home the next day (flights from Accra to OR Tambo International Airport leave at 9am daily) and play against Sudan on the Sunday.

”No one will come out to watch at that time of night before a working day. I’ve told Caf we can only play on a Sunday afternoon‚ not evening.”

“We cannot take the game outside Gauteng because there is no time to catch any connecting flights after the team comes back from Ghana,” Paul said.

The first two rounds of group matches begin on November 13 and go through to November 19. Each team is to play two matches in that six-day window‚ one home and one away.

By Gerald Dandah