BLOEMFONTEIN: South Africa’s men’s senior team, Bafana Bafana, will play two crucial 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier matches in Bloemfontein in September. Safa confirmed on Friday, 1 August, the two matches will be staged in the Free State’s capital city.
The first of these games is against Lesotho, nicknamed Likuena (Crocodiles), on 5 September; this will be followed by a match played against Nigeria’s Super Eagles on 9 September.
The game against Lesotho is set to be played in Bloemfontein on account of the struggle with finding a suitable stadium to stage international matches in Lesotho. The Lesotho Football Association (Lefa) instead opted to stage the match in the Free State, as has been the case with their international fixtures in recent years. Both matches are set to kick off at 18:00.
In the last World Cup qualifier match Bafana played in Bloemfontein on 11 June last year, the team hammered Zimbabwe with a 3 − 1 victory in a capacity-filled venue.
South Africa is at the top of group C in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers, with 13 points after six matches. In second place are Rwanda and Benin, both on 8 points. The Nigerians are fourth with 7 points, followed by Lesotho (6 points) and Zimbabwe (4 points).
Ticket sales for the fixture against Nigeria will open in three phases, with prices ranging from R70 for adults to R40 for children under 12. Phase-one tickets are being sold until 8 August. Phase-two tickets will be sold nationally on 9 August, at all Ticketpro outlets, for R100; while phase three will open on 16 August at R150 for the grand stand area.
Outlets include Spar, SuperSpar and Postnet, as well as Shell, BP and Sasol garages.
