Jonty Mark

By Jonty Mark

Football Editor


Bafana’s Broos gets more time as CAF postpone World Cup qualifiers

Hugo Broos was only hired as Bafana head coach on Wednesday, and now has more time to prepare.


 

Hugo Broos will have a few more months to prepare Bafana Bafana for the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, after the Confederation of African Football announced on Thursday that they had taken the decision to postpone the June qualifiers. to September.

ALSO READ: Who is new Bafana coach Hugo Broos?

“The Caf Emergency Committee, in consultation with Fifa, decided to postpone the CAF qualifiers for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 that were due to be played in June 2021, after taking into consideration the current challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to ensure the optimal playing conditions for all participating teams,” read a statement from Caf.

“The qualifiers will now take place in the existing windows of September, October and November 2021, and March 2022.

“CAF is reassessing its protocols and processes to enhance the implementation of COVID-19 related protocols, including specifically ofocusing on pre-match testing, which had been the source of some challenges in previous windows.

“Full details on the updated match schedule will be provided in due course.”

This decision has to be good news for Broos, who was only appointed as Bafana head coach on Wednesday and will only arrive in the country next week.

It remains to be seen if the South African Football Association will now organise friendlies in June, in place of the qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Ghana.

Either way, Broos will now have some time to prepare his squad, before they have to begin their mountainous task of making it to Qatar 2022.

 

Read more on these topics

Bafana Bafana Hugo Broos Soccer World Cup

For more news your way

Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.