June 1 – The South Africa national team, Bafana Bafana have been forced to postpone their flight to North America ahead of the FIFA World Cup, after what the country’s sports minister has labelled “embarrassing and grossly unfair” visa issues.
The team was set to fly out on Sunday for their training base at Universidad Del Futbol in San Juan Tilcuautla, with their tournament opener against co-hosts Mexico on June 11 the most-anticipated kick-off of the entire competition. Instead, the South African Football Association (SAFA) confirmed the trip had been delayed due to “challenges regarding visas for some players and officials.” The team will continue training in Johannesburg pending an emergency committee meeting.
Sports minister Gayton McKenzie did not mince words: “This SAFA travel & visa debacle is embarrassing & grossly unfair towards the players & coaching staff. I have informed SAFA that I need a report, and action must be taken against those responsible for this mess. We are being made to look like fools.”
The episode highlights the US travel friction that continues to shadow the World Cup. Fans from Algeria, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Tunisia, and Cape Verde face bond payments of up to $15,000 under the new visa bond pilot programme, though athletes and ticketed fans who opted into FIFA’s Priority Appointment Scheduling System by April 15 are exempt. In April, Iranian football executives were unable to attend an Asian Football Confederation meeting in Canada for similar reasons.
The irony, in the South African case, is hard to ignore. The same US administration creating visa hurdles for a Black-majority national football team has, in parallel, been offering an expedited visa and green card pathway to white Afrikaner farmers under the controversial refugee programme launched earlier this year.
One group of South Africans is being fast-tracked into America; another, on the eve of representing the nation at the world’s biggest sporting event, cannot get through the gate. Whatever one’s politics, the optics speak for themselves.
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