By Mark Ogagan
The first round African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier between South Africa and Egypt will now be played on Sunday, 2nd March, 2025 after the North Africans had difficulties acquiring visas.
Egypt requested the postponement when it became apparent that they would only receive the documents on the day of the match on Friday, 28 February 2025, and the request was acceded to. The match will still be played at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein and kick off is now at 17h00 on Sunday afternoon.
South Africa’s team assembled in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 26 February 2025 and travelled to the Free State with SAFA Technical Committee Chairman Jack Maluleke and SA U20 coach Raymond Mdaka. Mdaka will assist former Bafana Bafana mentor Molefi Ntseki, who joined the camp Wednesday evening and will now assume the reins as coach of the team.
Maluleke explained the reasons behind the coaching change.
“Remember, in the last NEC meeting, the SAFA technical committee recommended coach Molefi Ntseki after he was interviewed to head the technical development of SAFA, specifically the academies and junior teams as a manager,” he said.
“After we got information that the South African senior national team coach requested that Helman Mkhalele be excused from this team because we have the priority of Bafana Bafana playing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin in a few weeks’ time, we agreed.
“Therefore, we as SAFA realized that after the NEC endorsed the name of Molefi Ntseki, we had to check who can replace Mkhalele at this point in time. We thought of him (Ntseki) because he’s the most senior and we requested him to be deployed there on a temporary basis to step in for Helman and he will be assisted by the head coach of the SA U20s (Mdaka).
“Coach Ntseki is there because he’s in the system and we requested him to assist because we needed somebody who can step in because this is an urgent matter.”
The team has settled into their new accommodations in Bloemfontein, and they will have their first training session in the Free State on Thursday.
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