AFCON Qualifiers: Bafana Can Upstage Super Eagles - SAFA Boss

South Africa Football Association President has expressed confidence that the country’s senior men’s national team Bafana Bafana can qualify ahead of the Super Eagles for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.


Bafana defeated Guinea-Bissau in a friendly in Durban on Saturday in preparation for the AFCON qualifiers.

South Africa are in Group E alongside Nigeria, Libya and Seychelles in the qualifying group for the 2019 AFCON.

“You all played very well. This was very important for us to see how we match up against Guinea-Bissau,” Jordaan told SAFA.net, referring to Bafana.

“Remember this team was very unfortunate not go to the second round of the 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon earlier this year. They narrowly lost to Cameroon – the eventual winners – so they are a quality team.

“The way you played, you made it look too easy. Congratulations, this is what we wanted to see. The next stop is East London against Angola and we want to win that match as well, then we go for the qualifications of AFCON and the World Cup.

“I want to wish you all the best in your next matches and thank you for your commitment – let us continue to march on this road. You saw the crowd really enjoyed the quality of football that you produced. You have done very well and you have played the kind of football that made us enjoy the game.

“You may know that as Bafana Bafana we are pursuing four competitions this year – the COSAFA Cup, the CHAN but the two qualifications we want most are AFCON and the World Cup – the qualification for AFCON starts in June.

“There are 12 groups, and the top team in the group qualifies automatically, and that is twelve teams that go through. Then there are four best second placed teams – in other words any team in any group, if you lose one match and you end up second, you will get one of those places as one of the best second-placed team.

“What we want as the Association, whatever the mix, no matter how you get there, we want to be in the final 16 of AFCON in 2019.

“We start in Nigeria against Nigeria. it’s a huge challenge but if we can get over that we will be on our way. Also the next two matches for the World Cup qualifiers are against Cape Verde home and away. Again if we get a good start in those two matches we are very close to Russia 2018. Good luck once again, you have our support.”

South Africa will host Angola on Tuesday in East London, in another friendly game.