Bafana Bafana forced to miss first training session due to administration error - report

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and the team were reportedly not able to hold their first training session. Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and the team were reportedly not able to hold their first training session. Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

Published Sep 21, 2022

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Durban - Bafana Bafana began their preparations for their upcoming friendlies with a huge damper as an administration error prevented them from partaking in their first training session at the Dobsonville Stadium.

The South African national will play host to two friendly matches in the next week. The first against Sierra Leone on Saturday and then Botswana the following Tuesday as Head Coach Hugo Broos steps up preparations for the continuation of AFCON qualifiers.

According to Timeslive, coach Broos was visibly frustrated at having to write off an important training session as he looks to merge the new faces with his already formed core.

“I didn’t know we couldn’t train on the pitch today. If you ask me where we are going to train, I can’t answer you because we didn't do it (Bafana did not get the arrangements wrong)," Broos said as SA held a press conference at Dobsonville Stadium on Monday.

The managing director of Stadium Management SA(SMSA) Bertie Grobbelaar confirmed to Timeslive that the reasons behind Bafana's not being able to train was due to a mistake on their end. They failed to book the Dobsonville Stadium and therefore it was not prepared for the national team.

"There was no training session booked for yesterday (Monday)," said Grobbelaar

“I see there is a [media] report that there was something wrong with the pitch. There was nothing wrong with the pitch. The stadium wasn’t booked.”

“Safa requested a press conference for 3pm very late yesterday, which I approved. The request for the press conference came at 1pm. But the pitch wasn’t marked because the training session was today (Tuesday),” Grobbelaar said.

@SmisoScribe