A day after climbing up to their highest Fifa ranking in three years, Bafana Bafana on Thursday secured a friendly against the highly rated United States for the Nelson Mandela Challenge.
South African Football Association (Safa) chief executive Leslie Sedibe has confirmed that a deal was struck with the American football authorities this week, who have agreed to a friendly with South Africa in Cape Town on November 17.
It will be the second time in three years that the US travel to the country for the season-ending international fixture, having faced a team led by Carlos Alberto Parreira at Ellis Park in November 2007.
Sedibe said the US, who finished top of Group C during the World Cup but fell to Ghana in the round of 16, opted to play Bafana because they wanted to drum up support for the 2018 World Cup bid.
"We received a number of requests from certain federations to play them in November. But in the end we settled for America because they thought, as we are recent hosts of the World Cup, they could promote their bid here. We are having discussions with them about lessons learnt from hosting the tournament because they first had it in 1994," Sedibe said.
It has been established that Nigeria were also in the reckoning for the November 17 clash at Cape Town Stadium, but Safa settled for the US - who are ranked 18th in the world - because it made financial sense to play them, Sedibe said. "Other teams were simply expensive," he added.
Sedibe has begun a process of securing Bafana matches for future Fifa dates. "We have sent out letters to the federations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, among others."
A possible clash with one of these north African countries should help coach Mosimane prepare for the all-important African Nations Cup qualifiers against Egypt in March and June.
But letters have also been dispatched to the football federations of Qatar and Chile, with the South Americans expecting Bafana to make the trip to Santiago before the Copa America finals in June.
Earlier this year, Bafana pulled out of an arranged friendly with Chile, a move which prompted the South Americans to demand compensation for breach of contract.
"We now have an agreement in place and will play them away as part of their preparations for Copa America. They will then come here again," Sedibe said.
Meanwhile, Sedibe dismissed as "unnecessary sensation" reports that Safa were facing |financial difficulties after splurging money on tickets and lavish hotels during the World Cup.
Source - iol.co.za
Business Services Ads