168 Fans for Bafana Bafana Match Sees SAFA Considering Other Provinces for Future Games

168 Fans for Bafana Bafana Match Sees SAFA Considering Other Provinces for Future Games

Keba Mothoagae
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:13 PM
  • The penny has finally dropped for the South African Football Association about where it will schedule future Bafana Bafana matches
  • The organisation was embarrassed deeply when less than 1 000 turned out for two fixtures at Soccer City last week
  • SAFA is now considering taking future national team matches outside the province

Common sense has prevailed inside the South African Football Association.

The organisation is considering moving Bafana Bafana matches outside of the province.

This came after the embarrassment of the empty stands that greeted the team and their guests in Sierra Leone and Botswana over the space of four days last week.

bafana bafana, south africa, safa, soccer city, fnb stadium, empty stadiums
SAFA is finding a workable solution to empty stadiums for Bafana Bafana matches.
Source: UGC

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According to TimesLIVE, SAFA CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said:

“That is a possibility [moving Bafana to a different province] because we know that when we were playing in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) during the Cosafa Cup the stadium was full. KZN, Limpopo and Gqeberha have always produced decent crowds and we are looking at all those possibilities. In Gauteng it is not only Bafana [who suffer poor attendances] — even some of the big clubs are struggling to fill stadiums.

“It was disappointing to see not many fans during the recent Bafana matches and that’s why we are looking at other venues. I wouldn’t necessarily call it apathy from the fans regarding Bafana because if you go to other places attendances are good."

South Africa's next two home matches will be against Burkina Faso and Liberia, the latter being next year in March.

Empty FNB Stadium for Bafana Bafana vs Botswana match causes concern among local football fans

The South African Football Association will have to rethink where it schedules future Bafana Bafana matches.

Less than 1 000 people were present to watch South Africa defeat Botswana 1-0 at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg last week Tuesday. Even fewer fans pitched up for their encounter against Sierra Leone the previous Saturday, when Bafana won 4-0.

Sports Brief reported on the following Monday how an image on social media showed the embarrassing disparity between attendances for the latter game and that of the Rugby Championship clash between the Springboks and Argentina that afternoon.

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Keba Mothoagae
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South AfricaSouth Africa Football Association (SAFA)