Johannesburg – SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan revealed on Friday that Bafana Bafana will play their first home match of their 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification campaign in Cape Town.
South Africa will play Nigeria on September 10 at the Cape Town Stadium, five days after playing Sudan in Khartoum in their opening game of group A, which also includes Rwanda.
“We are currently looking at securing a chartered flight to take our team to Khartoum and the reason for that is simple,” Jordaan said after welcoming new Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba to the media.
“Bafana play on the fifth (of September) in Khartoum and then they play on the 10th (of September) in Cape Town.
“Therefore, it is important that we get our squad in and out 1/8of Sudan 3/8 because they play two very important matches in a short space of time.”
Jordaan joked that Mashaba would be introduced to the Cape Town crowd in a baptism of fire, taking on the daunting task of facing Nigeria in a crucial qualification encounter.
“Nigeria are the defending African champions, it’s going to be a huge match.
“Shakes could not have asked for a bigger test. Your first home match, in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, is against the reigning African champions in a World Cup stadium in Cape Town.”
Meanwhile, Mashaba confirmed that South Africa would name one large squad of players for the back-to-back fixtures, instead of naming separate squads for each match. – Sapa