Bafana Bafana will depart for the World Cup on Monday, a day later than planned, after all the players received their visas to travel through the US, Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie confirmed on Sunday.
The team had been due to leave on a charter flight for their training base in the Mexican city of Pachuca on Sunday, but that was postponed while the South African Football Association (Safa) tried to sort out the paperwork.
“All Bafana Bafana players received their visas to travel to the USA. Outstanding are the assistant coach, team doctor, head of security and one analyst. The charter will leave tomorrow (Monday),” McKenzie said on X.
He had earlier issued a furious rebuke to SAFA over the paperwork issues, calling them “embarrassing and grossly unfair towards the players and coaching staff”, adding “we are being made to look like fools”.
The football association confirmed in a statement that the team had been unable to fly in the morning as planned due to “challenges regarding visas” for some players and officials.
Emergency meeting
SAFA had not yet confirmed the team’s departure with an emergency meeting planned later on Sunday to discuss the issue.
South Africa kick off the World Cup in Mexico City on June 11 and are appearing at the global finals for the first time since they were hosts themselves in 2010.
Coach Hugo Broos had previously spoken of wanting to be in Mexico by June 1 at the latest to allow his players to recover from jetlag and acclimatise to the altitude, though they will now arrive a day later.
Pachuca is around 680 metres further above sea level than Johannesburg at 2 432 metres.
Bafana are due to play Jamaica in Mexico on Friday in a final warm-up fixture.
An administrative bungle in qualifying almost cost them their place at the finals when their 2-0 victory over Lesotho was overturned after they had fielded an ineligible player in Teboho Mokoena, who was suspended for the clash.
Despite this, they still finished a point ahead of Nigeria and Benin in their qualification pool.
South Africa also have Group A games against the Czech Republic (June 18) in the US city of Atlanta and South Korea (June 24) in Monterrey back in Mexico.
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- Bafana Bafana's World Cup departure was delayed by a day due to visa issues for players and some staff when traveling through the United States.
- South African Football Association (SAFA) faced criticism from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie for the paperwork mishap, which delayed the team's planned Sunday flight to Pachuca, Mexico.
- The team will now leave on Monday, aiming to arrive slightly later than the coach's preferred date for acclimatization before the World Cup kickoff on June 11.
- South Africa's World Cup group includes matches against Jamaica (warm-up), Czech Republic, and South Korea, with games held in Mexico and the US.
- An administrative error during qualifiers nearly disqualified South Africa, but they qualified after finishing top of their group despite using an ineligible player in one match.
