Cosafa Cup debacle could force Safa to arrange expensive friendlies for Bafana
The venue for the 2019 Cosafa Cup‚ potentially the most crucial regional championships in years‚ remains up in the air
The timing of the competition‚ to run from May 25 to June 8 and ending less than two weeks before the start of the Africa Cup of Nations‚ could give the Cosafa region’s five qualifiers the perfect preparation for the continental finals in Egypt. Not only would Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter have three matches against good quality opposition‚ but also precious time in camp with players to work on fine-tuning their continental challenge. But that is now up in the air and may force the South African Football Association (Safa) to arrange expensive friendlies elsewhere‚ a conundrum facing Zimbabwe‚ Angola‚ Namibia and Madagascar as well. Zifa had indicated to Cosafa in January that they would host the 2019 event‚ signing an agreement to that effect‚ but when the Zimbabwe government pulled out citing a lack of preparation time‚ they took with them the financial guarantees necessary. According to Cosafa‚ Zifa indicated that they would press ahead in any event‚ before pulling out last w...
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