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Bafana Bafana’s rescheduled kickoff against Gambia at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban yesterday resulted in a huge logistical and financial nightmare.
The match was initially scheduled for a 3pm kickoff but moved to 7pm after second assistant referee Pierre Jean Eric Andrivoavonjy and fourth official Abdoul Ohabee Kanoso, both from Madagascar, had not arrived as planned on Friday.
Match referee Hamada el Moussa Nampiandraza and his first assistant, Velomanana Ferdinand Jinoro, arrived from Madagascar as scheduled on Friday.
Safa had to charter a flight for the two stranded officials.
This change in plan resulted in a match clash with the Sharks vs Stormers Super Rugby fixture, which was scheduled for a 7.10pm kickoff at Growthpoint Kings Park across the road from Moses Mabhida.
“Ideally, we would not want this kind of situation because one of our goals is to have people enjoy both sporting codes if it’s not played at the same time.
“I know people who had planned to attend both matches, but unfortunately that was no longer possible,” said Vusi Mazibuko, the general manager of Moses Mabhida Stadium.
One angry soccer fan tweeted that he was returning home with his son as he had not been aware of the rescheduled match.
Mazibuko added: “There is going to be pressure on our roads because of late arrivals.
“It’s not like we can’t accommodate everyone, but if they all arrive at the same time, just before kickoff, then there is going to be chaos.
“My problem is that people don’t want to park a kilometre away from the stadium.
“They all want to squeeze into one place, and they would even park on the pitch if they could.”
It also caused programming and financial complications for the two broadcasters, the SABC and SuperSport, who had planned a live screening of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “We had to shift the programmes and negotiate with the advertisers.”
However, he could not quantify any financial implications, saying only “there will be [costs], but I will only know later”.
SuperSport’s Clinton van der Berg said: “It was not a big deal, but the delay affected call time for the studio crew. The guys were SMSed and emailed about the change.”
A Safa official who did not want to be identified said the association had to dig deep into its pockets to charter a flight to ensure that the officials arrived on time.
“To save face, we had to do something to get the officials here and the game could not be moved to Sunday [today].
“In fact, we wanted to do something on Friday evening but could not get the landing rights in Antananarivo [Madagascar’s capital],” said the source.
He added that the mistake could have been caused by the association’s in-house travel agent.
“We could not take the risk of appointing southern African officials, as it was going to complicate matters.
“Gambia would have lodged a protest and we would have had to forfeit the points, pending the results,” he explained.
Safa spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi apologised for the delay but said it had been beyond the governing body’s control.
“Only two officials arrived on time, hence the decision to delay the game by four hours,” he said.
– Additional reporting by Daniel Mothowagae
