(Redirected from Bafana Bafana)
The 'South Africa national football team', or ''Bafana Bafana'', is the national team of
South Africa and is controlled by the
South African Football Association. It returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned from
FIFA.
History
From the earliest days of the sport in South Africa until the end of apartheid, football in South Africa was affected by the country's system of racial segregation. The all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA), was formed in 1892, while the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) and the South African Coloured Football Association (SACFA) were founded in 1903, 1933 and 1936 respectively.
South Africa were invited to join
Ethiopia,
Egypt and
Sudan at the first conference of the
Confederation of African Football in
Khartoum in 1957 and the South African representative, Fred Fell, sat at the first meeting as a founder member. It soon became clear however that South Africa's constitution prohibited racially mixed teams from competitive sport and so they could only send either an all-black side or an all-white side to the planned
1957 African Cup of Nations. This was unacceptable to the other members of the Confederation and South Africa were disqualified from the competition, (some sources say that they withdrew voluntarily). At the second CAF conference in 1958 South Africa were formally expelled from CAF. The all-white (FASA) were admitted to FIFA in the same year, but in August of 1960 it was given an ultimatum of one year to fall in line with the non-discriminatory regulations of FIFA. On
September 26 1961 at the annual FIFA conference, the South African association was formally suspended from FIFA. Sir
Stanley Rous, president of
The Football Association of England and a champion of South Africa's FIFA membership, was elected FIFA President a few days later. Rous was adamant that sport, and FIFA in particular, should not embroil itself in political matters and against fierce opposition he continued to resist attempts to expel South Africa from FIFA. The suspension was lifted in January of 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous in order to investigate the state of football in the country. Rous declared that if the suspension were not lifted, football there would be retarded, possibly to the point of no recovery. The next annual conference of FIFA in October of 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a larger contingent of representatives from African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South Africa's membership was re-imposed. In
1976, after the
Soweto uprising, they were formally expelled from FIFA.
In
1991, with the apartheid system beginning to be demolished, a new multiracial South African Football Association was formed. On
July 7,
1992, the South African national team played their first game in two decades, beating
Cameroon 1-0.
South Africa made the
1998 and
2002 World Cups, but failed to get out of the first round each time. They did host and win the
1996 African Nations Cup and will host the
2010 World Cup, the first
African nation to do so.
South Africa failed to impress local supporters by not scoring a single goal in the African Nations Cup of 2006. In light of these poor performances it was decided that the hiring of a more experienced manager was essential. Rumours began to fly, prior to the
2006, that England coach
Sven-Göran Eriksson was to be the man for the job, with SAFA apparently offering him R30 million to take Bafana-Bafana to glory in 2010. However this has since been denied. More recently the former Brazil coach
Carlos Alberto Parreira has accepted the job. After accepting the job, he was awarded R100 million for a four year contract. His term as manager started
January 1 2007. South Africa are currently 53rd in the FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking.
Honours
★
★
International record
World Cup
★
1930 to
1962 - ''Did not enter''
★
1966 to
1990 - ''Banned from FIFA because of Apartheid ''
★
1994 - ''Did not qualify''
★
1998 - Round 1
★
2002 - Round 1
★
2006 - ''Did not qualify''
★
2010 - Qualified automatically as host nation
African Nations Cup
★
1957 - ''Disqualified because of apartheid''
★
1959 to
1992 - ''Banned from CAF''
★
1994 - ''Did not qualify''
★
1996 - 'Champions'
★
1998 - Second place
★
2000 - Third place
★
2002 - Quarterfinals
★
2004 - Round 1
★
2006 - Round 1
★
2008 - Qualifying Progess in Group 10.
★
2010 - Did Not enter due hosting World Cup.
Coaches
★ 1985-1994
Dieter Widmann
★ 1994-1997
Clive Barker
★ 1998
Jomo Sono
★ 1998
Philippe Troussier
★ 1998-2000
Trott Moloto
★ 2000-2002
Carlos Queiroz
★ 2002
Jomo Sono
★ 2002-2004
Ephraim Mashaba
★ 2004
April Phumo
★ 2004-2005
Stuart Baxter
★ 2005-2006
Ted Dumitru
★ 2006
Pitso Mosimane
★ 2007-
Carlos Alberto Parreira
Famous players
Most capped
Top goalscorers
Current Squad
''Bafana Bafana's'' squad for the
2008 AFCON qualifier against
Chad on March 24
External links
★
South Africa FA official site
★
List of all Bafana Bafana players ever
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