Bafana leave Warriors stranded

November 15, opting, instead, to play Cote d’Ivoire in a Nelson Mandela Challenge, and offering their Under-23 side to travel to Harare.
The Ivorians have also pulled out of a friendly international against Cameroon next month, to accommodate the new offer to play Bafana Bafana, leaving the Indomitable Lions and the Warriors stranded.

Zifa president Cuthbert Dube hinted last week that the Warriors were set to play Bafana Bafana in an international friendly next month.
Documents seen by The Herald also show that an agreement had been thrashed out between Safa and Zifa for the two national teams to meet on November 15 in Harare.
Such was the progress, which had been made on the issue, that Zifa chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze, even wrote to Safa wanting clarification on the number of people the South Africans would be bringing to Zimbabwe.

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Ironically, both Zimbabwe and South Africa failed to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals.
Following a proposal between the two nations early this month to have an international friendly, it now appears Safa have been lured by the carrot of playing Cote d’Ivoire’s star-studded side instead of the Warriors.
Mashingaidze wrote to Safa and advised them that Zimbabwe was ready to host Bafana Bafana.
“Following the telephone conversation between your office and ourselves pertaining to the above matter (proposed international “A” friendly match between Zimbabwe and South Africa’s senior national team), we hereby confirm that we are prepared to host your senior national team on 15th November in Harare.

“Please kindly confirm in writing your travel itinerary and size of the delegation to enable us to plan for the high-profile match,” wrote Mashingaidze.
But Safa have now shifted posts, after sealing a deal to play Cote d’Ivoire, and have advised Zifa that they will be sending their Under-23 team to Zimbabwe.
Yesterday, Mashingaidze confirmed that Baby Bafana, who are seeking a place to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics, were set to play in Zimbabwe next month.
Baby Bafana will be playing at the Caf Championships, from November 26 to December 10 in Morocco, a tournament, which will see three African teams automatically qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games, while the fourth-placed team will feature in a play-off with a team from the Asian Football Confederation.

“I can confirm that the correspondence we got from Safa is for the Under-23 team,” said Mashingaidze.
“After failing to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations, it is back to the drawing board for them.
“And they want to send their Under-23 team which has hopes of qualifying for next year’s Olympics Games.

“And, if an Under-23 team is coming, there is no point to bring our senior team and they will have to play our Young Warriors,” said Mashingaidze.
The Zifa chief acknowledged the need to keep the Warriors active ahead of the start of the 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers.
“Yes, the team will definitely be given more game time and kept in action and we have other engagements with countries like Zambia who want to play us but that would not be for next month’s match,” said Mashingaidze.

“We are still running around and maybe tomorrow we will have a clearer picture.”
The 2013 Nations Cup qualifiers will get under way after the Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
And, according to the Caf format, all the countries that failed to qualify for next year’s Nations Cup will be drawn to play in a preliminary round based on a home-and-away knockout basis.

The winners from this initial round will then meet the 15 countries that would have played at the Nations Cup finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
The teams, which emerge winners in the second round, will then qualify for the 2013 Nations Cup finals in South Africa.
Bafana Bafana bowed out in comical fashion after initially celebrating their goalless draw against Sierra Leone, believing that it had taken them through.
Goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune was captured on television telling the fans, using sign language, that he was delaying the match because a draw suited Bafana Bafana’s cause to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals.

Safa president Kirsten Nematandani apologised to his nation on Wednesday but insisted that Bafana Bafana coach, Pitso Mosimane, will not be axed.
“I would like to apologise to the entire nation, government and sponsors for the failure to qualify for the Afcon,” said Nematandani.
“We are profoundly sorry for letting the nation down. The nation believes, given the talent that we have, failure was inexcusable.

“Our best endeavour is to now make sure that this doesn’t happen again. But then people need to held accountable but, again, I stress we are sincerely sorry for letting the nation down.”
Safa have also withdrawn their appeal to Caf and said Mosimane’s job remained safe.
Zifa president Dube has also assured Warriors’ coach Norman Mapeza that his job remains safe, despite the team’s failure to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals.

The Warriors fell eight places on the Fifa rankings following their 1-2 defeat against Cape Verde and are now ranked 74th in the world.
In August, the Warriors were able to assemble a full-strength squad with all the foreign-based players, to host neighbours Zambia in an international friendly at Rufaro, which Zimbabwe won 2-0.