Bafana boss Hugo Broos continues to build his team amid Fifa sanction uncertainty

Bafana Bafana’s World Cup hopes are in the hands of global soccer’s governing body Fifa following a farcical administrative bungle in March 2025. A 2-0 victory over Lesotho, followed by a win over Benin by the same scoreline, helped South Africa seize control of their Fifa 2026 World Cup qualification group a few months ago.

Despite these solid displays that propelled South Africa’s senior men’s soccer side to first place in Group C (with 13 points to second-placed Rwanda’s eight) — Bafana Bafana’s fate remains in the balance. The team is likely to be retrospectively punished by Fifa for illegally fielding midfielder maestro Teboho Mokoena in the match against Lesotho.

Costly error

This despite the player being suspended after accumulating two yellow cards in the qualifiers — an automatic one-match ban. Mokeona’s two cautions came against Benin (in 2023) and Zimbabwe in mid-2024. 

But Mokoena was present and called the shots in midfield as Bafana Bafana subdued Lesotho. South Africa’s neighbours also missed this, until just before the Bafana versus Benin clash. Under Fifa rules: “Protests must reach the Disciplinary Committee in writing, indicating the relevant grounds, within 24 hours of the end of the match in question. The 24-hour time limit cannot be extended.”

However, whether or not a team lodges a protest, Fifa can itself take action. There are past examples of world soccer’s governing body doing exactly that, including when Fifa docked three points from Nigeria during the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

The Super Eagles had fielded defender Shehu Abdullahi during a 1-1 draw with Algeria, despite the fact that he had collected two yellow cards from previous matches. The result was overturned and the Algerians were awarded a 3-0 victory for the oversight. Algeria did not lodge a protest. 

Waiting game     

During the South African Football Association’s (Safa) recent appearance before the parliamentary oversight committee for Sport, Arts and Culture, the committee members grilled the association on the mistake.

The members highlighted how the imminent Fifa sanction would be a major blow for the confidence of the players as they bid to qualify South Africa for its first soccer World Cup since 2010. Being docked points has the potential to derail the team’s campaign and slash its abundant dressing-room morale.   

Hence the committee members wanted to know who was responsible for the mistake and what consequences they faced as a result. After some probing, Safa national executive committee member Poobie Govindasamy admitted that it was the responsibility of Bafana Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka to keep such records.

Govindasamy hinted that the punishment handed to Tseka would depend on the final outcome to be announced by Fifa in due course.

“That matter is under investigation. When Fifa makes the decision only then (will Safa’s) investigation be completed. The investigation is incomplete at the moment… We’ve not received the final word on it,” Govindasamy told Parliament.

Broos builds

While this whole storm around Mokoena rages on, Bafana Bafana’s Belgian coach Hugo Broos used the most recent window to expand the depth of his team before the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), which will be hosted by Morocco in December.

South Africa duelled with Tanzania on Friday, 6 June 2025. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. They faced Mozambique four days later, walking away with a 2-0 victory. Despite the mixed bag of results Broos said it was mission accomplished for this international window.

The Belgian tactician was without a number of first-choice players — not least the Mamelodi Sundowns crew that is heading to the Club World Cup. Broos also rested other stars, such as Burnley striker Lyle Foster.

In place of the missing faces, Broos brought in some new players to try to impress him. Orlando Pirates duo Mohau Nkota and defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi did exactly this as they made their Bafana debuts. As did Sinoxolo Kwayiba — who was one of the scorers in the victory over Mozambique.

“Everything is positive about the past few days. This is something that will make my job very difficult in the next few months when you see that we have 23 players (who played in this window). You know that there are still maybe another 23 who are with their clubs or who are at home. So that means we can choose now between 40 players,” Broos said.

“This will be difficult because you have to drop players in September (for the World Cup qualifiers), players who maybe deserved it. But I have to make choices, but this also means players will be more motivated because they know that there are guys behind them who are waiting to take their places. This will bring the level higher, certainly,” the 73-year-old coach stated.

While the incompetence of others around him threatens to undo all his hard work, Broos is focused on the tasks at hand. One of those is delivering a competitive display at Afcon, the other is qualifying for the World Cup. Healthy competition in the team will help achieve these goals. DM