Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos was unhappy after his team were not allowed to train at the Stade Félix Houphouët Boigny in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Benin.
After winning last week’s game against Lesotho, Broos and his men will be targeting three points on Tuesday as they seek to cement their place at the top of Group C of qualification.
Benin’s grounds have been deemed unsuitable for international football, so they’ve had to play their home games in Côte d’Ivoire.
Speaking on Monday as he prepared his team, the Belgian Broos expressed his unhappiness at not being allowed to train at the stadium.
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“I’m really not satisfied with the decision that we can’t have a pre-match training in the stadium where the game takes place. I think this is a FIFA rule, that every team has the right to have a preliminary training before the game of 60 minutes in the stadium where you play, where the match takes place,” Broos said according to SAFA.net.
“I don’t understand. I understand it because there is another game. But this is bad when people who make the rules don’t follow the rules. Will that have an influence on the game? I don’t know. But I know if tomorrow after the game I’m not at the press conference, there will be a sanction. So we have to follow the rules. Where are the rules now? And you will tell me, yes, that’s for both teams. I don’t think so. I think Berlin has already trained in that stadium because they were here before us.
“So it’s all nice to say, follow the rules, follow this. We have to follow everything. But we have the right to train today in the stadium where the match takes place, and we can’t. And this is not honest and this is not correct.”
A win will take Bafana that much closer to next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. After this week’s games, the qualification campaign will resume in September, where South Africa will travel to Lesotho as well as host Nigeria’s Super Eagles.
IOL Sport