– Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has named the final 23-member squad to face Nigeria and Zimbabwe in two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers next month.
The South African senior men’s national team face Nigeria’s Super Eagles away from home in Uyo on Friday, 7 June 2024 and then return to host Zimbabwe at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, 11 June 2024.
Broos said he was happy that the South African Football Association (SAFA) will charter a flight for Bafana Bafana to Nigeria next week and then return home a few hours later before heading to Bloemfontein.
“It is very important that we are travelling by charter,” he said.
“You can spend two days travelling (on a commercial airline). You leave on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday night, it’s terrible. We did it two years ago against Ethiopia, we won here against Ethiopia, but we ran after the ball, we didn’t touch the ball and we won it. But we could have lost that game because the players were exhausted.
“We could not to repeat that again and SAFA did a very big effort to have that charter. I’m very happy with it. So now we will fly to Lagos, from Lagos to Uyo, done.
“Ok, the flight will not be two or three hours, but it’s only Lagos and we are finished. This is what I wanted and again, I’m very happy that we could achieve it.”
Bafana Bafana will return to Bloemfontein for the first time since the 2010 FIFA World Cup. They last played in the city when they beat France 2-1 in the global FIFA tournament 14 years ago.
The gates at Free State Stadium will open at 15h00 and the tickets are priced at R50.00 for adults. Kids, scholars and students will pay R20.00 (school uniform and student cards required for over 12-year-olds). Tickets are available at TicketPro outlets, Spar, SuperSpar, Putco, Postnet etc.
