World Cup qualifiers: Bafana Bafana face venue change, players injury crisis… it’s a difficult preparation, says coach Broos

By our reporter 1.9.2025
South Africa’s Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos admitted that his preparations for the World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Nigeria has been made difficult by the change of venue and injury to some of the players he listed for the duel.
South Africa will play Lesotho on Friday in a game billed for the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, but because of the bad state of the pitch CAF and FIFA have forced a change of venue to a smaller Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium also in Bloemfontein, at the request of the Lesotho Football Association who are the home team.
The match was supposed to be an away game for Lesotho, but because they have no FIFA approved Stadium in their country, they play their games in South Africa.
However, Bafana Bafana are still expected to play against Nigeria at the Free State Stadium, which has a capacity of 42,000 compared to the Molemela Stadium’s 22,000.
“When we saw the pitch last week it was awful, such a bad pitch,” Broos said.
“Over the weekend we were contacted by Caf and Fifa [and told] that we can’t play on that pitch. We contacted Lesotho but they didn’t know anything about it.
“Yesterday we got information we’ll play at the second-biggest stadium in Bloemfontein [Dr Molemela Stadium]. We have to accept what it is because it’s Lesotho who are organising it.
“We don’t know why suddenly Caf and Fifa want to be in control of the pitch but that’s the decision they’ve made, and we have to take it like it is. But again, we don’t have to focus on that, this is out of our power. We just have to focus on the game, and we’ll see where we play.”
Meanwhile coach Broos is scrambling to replace some of the players who are nursing injury.
“It’s maybe one of the most difficult preparations I’ve had since I became coach of Bafana Bafana,” Broos lamented.
“We have a lot of injuries, important players. (Nkosinathi) Sibisi is not there. (Ime) Okon is injured. Themba (Zwane) was playing, but you know he is injured. (S’phelele) Sithole played his first game and so can’t make it, (Grant) Kekana as well
“We had to tell Maswanganyi to go home after the injury (Sunday in the match against Chippa United). We took that decision because we are not sure. We have no guarantee he will be ready for the matches. We can’t take that risk.