South African Football Association officials see no reasons for postponing their anticipated game with Egypt
The South African Football Association (SAFA) has officially announced their refusal to postpone next month’s African Cup of Nations qualifying game against Egypt.
It was reported recently that the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) will ask the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to postpone the game because of unrest at home.
But the SAFA officials see that there is no reason to postpone the game.
“The request of postponing the game would be strange as the match was meant to take place in SA on March 26, and not in Egypt,” Safa communications director Morio Sanyane was quoted as saying by South African magazine Bussines Day on Tuesday.
“In matters like these, Fifa and Caf do not usually postpone matches.
“They usually take matches like these to neutral venues if the home team is unable to meet guarantees around security.
“In this case the match is not in Egypt and will take place in SA. Anyway, what we know is that the game is still on,” added Sanyane.
The game with Bafana Bafana is critical for the Pharaohs as they sit bottom of their group with a single point out of a possible six but the ongoing circumstances in Egypt have made it hard for the African champions to prepare for the clash.
The South African team is determined to continue their preparations for the game as there has been no word yet from Caf.
“This whole thing is like rumour administration, really. The fact is this is not a friendly match and in terms of protocol, they are supposed to consult Caf and not the media.
“We can only be advised by Caf and nobody else. Until there is official correspondence from Caf, we are continuing with our preparations as originally planned.” Concluded Sanyane.
All sports competitions in Egypt had been on hold since demonstrations broke in the country, and there is no definite date yet for their resuming.
