SA Football Association (Safa) CEO Tebogo Motlanthe has confirmed Bafana Bafana’s friendlies against lowly ranked Botswana and Sierra Leone next week after an attempt to play Egypt fell through.
In line with Bafana coach Hugo Broos’ intentions to have his side tested by tough, top nations, Safa hoped it would get Mohamed Salah’s Egypt in a friendly as the next opponents for SA.
Broos was pleased when his bosses secured a friendly match with France, where his players were pitted against some of the best in the world in March. Bafana faced a baptism of fire in a Kylian Mbappé-inspired 5-0 defeat in Lille..
In August, Motlanthe said he was in talks with the Egyptian FA to set up a game in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When that did not materialise, Safa arranged matches against Botswana, ranked 146th in the Fifa world rankings, and 113th-placed Sierra Leone.
Bafana will play Sierra Leone on September 24 and Botswana on September 27, both at 3pm.
“There was never a plan that we would play Egypt. I told the media and explained that we are looking at Egypt as one of the options.
“There were no plans to play Egypt, but there were discussions … Unfortunately we couldn’t play Egypt.”
With Bafana failing to qualify for the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar in November and December, Motlanthe said Safa is working to ensure the players are not inactive during that time.
Motlanthe said Safa is waiting for Broos to confirm his plans for the period.
“The coach will give us a programme and from there we will ensure we get what the coach wants,” he said.
“If it is friendlies [the coach wants] and if it’s a camp, then it will be a training camp. I will sit down with the coach this week because I was out of office last week.”
Broos is expected to announce his squad for next week’s matches on Friday.
