South Africa national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = South Africa
Badge = South_Africa_FA.gif
FIFA Trigramme = RSA
Nickname = Bafana Bafana
(The Boys, The Boys)
Association = South African
Football Association
Confederation = CAF (Africa)
Coach = flagicon|BRA Joel Santana| | Captain = Aaron Mokoena | Most caps = Aaron Mokoena (75)
Top scorer = Benni McCarthy (30)
Home Stadium = First National Bank Stadium
FIFA Rank = 85
FIFA max = 16
FIFA max date = August 1996
FIFA min = 109
FIFA min date = August 1993

Elo Rank = 91

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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

First game =flagicon|Netherlands Netherlands 2 - 1 South Africa flagicon|South Africa|1910 (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 2 November 1924)
Largest win =flagicon|Australia Australia 0 - 8 South Africa flagicon|South Africa|1928 (Adelaide, Australia; 17 September 1955)
Largest loss =flagicon|Australia Australia 5 - 1 South Africa flagicon|South Africa|1928 (Newcastle, Australia; 7 June 1947) flagicon|Mexico Mexico 4 - 0 South Africa flagicon|South Africa|1928 (Los Angeles, USA; 6 October 1993) flagicon|United States USA 4 - 0 South Africa flagicon|South Africa (Washington, USA; 3 June 2000) flagicon|Nigeria Nigeria 4 - 0 South Africa flagicon|South Africa (Monastir, Tunisia; 31 January 2004)
World cup apps = 2
World cup first = 1998
World cup best = Round 1, 1998 and 2002
Regional name = African Nations Cup
Regional cup apps = 7
Regional cup first = 1996
Regional cup best = Winners, 1996
Confederations cup apps = 1
Confederations cup first = 1997
Confederations cup best = 1st round, 1997

The South Africa national football team" or Bafana Bafana"' (The Boys) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/4527806.stm] , is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association. It returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned from FIFA.

History

From the earliest days of the sport in South Africa until the end of apartheid, football in South Africa was affected by the country's system of racial segregation. The all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA), was formed in 1892, while the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) and the South African Coloured Football Association (SACFA) were founded in 1903, 1933 and 1936 respectively.

South Africa were invited to join Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan at the first conference of the Confederation of African Football in Khartoum in 1957 and the South African representative, Fred Fell, sat at the first meeting as a founding member. It soon became clear however that South Africa's constitution prohibited racially mixed teams from competitive sport and so they could only send either an all-black side or an all-white side to the planned 1957 African Cup of Nations. This was unacceptable to the other members of the Confederation and South Africa were disqualified from the competition, however some sources say that they withdrew voluntarily.

At the second CAF conference in 1958 South Africa were formally expelled from CAF. The all-white (FASA) were admitted to FIFA in the same year, but in August 1960 it was given an ultimatum of one year to fall in line with the non-discriminatory regulations of FIFA. On 26 September 1961 at the annual FIFA conference, the South African association was formally suspended from FIFA. Sir Stanley Rous, president of The Football Association of England and a champion of South Africa's FIFA membership, was elected FIFA President a few days later. Rous was adamant that sport, and FIFA in particular, should not embroil itself in political matters and against fierce opposition he continued to resist attempts to expel South Africa from FIFA. The suspension was lifted in January 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous in order to investigate the state of football in the country.

Rous declared that if the suspension were not lifted, football there would be discontinued, possibly to the point of no recovery. The next annual conference of FIFA in October 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a larger contingent of representatives from African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South Africa's membership was re-imposed. In 1976, after the Soweto uprising, they were formally expelled from FIFA.

In 1991, with the apartheid system beginning to be demolished, a new multiracial South African Football Association was formed. On 7 July 1992, the South African national team played their first game in two decades, beating Cameroon 1-0. South Africa made the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but failed to get out of the first round each time. They hosted (and won) the 1996 African Nations Cup and will host the 2010 World Cup, the first African nation to do so.

South Africa failed to impress local supporters by not scoring a single goal in the African Nations Cup of 2006. In light of these poor performances it was decided that the hiring of a more experienced manager was essential. Rumours began to fly, prior to the 2006, that England coach Sven-Göran Eriksson was to be the man for the job, with SAFA apparently offering him R30 million to take Bafana-Bafana to glory in 2010. However this has since been denied. More recently the former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has accepted the job. After accepting the job, he was awarded R100 million for a four year contract. His term as manager started 1 January 2007 targeting 2010 FIFA World Cup but he resigned in April 2008 due to family reasons.

Joel Santana signed to coach until 2010. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/soccer/wires/04/22/2080.ap.la.spt.soc.south.africa.santana.0414/index.html] He leaves Flamengo in an extraordinary campaign of death and destruction followed by heartbreak and loss.

Honours

*sport honours|African Cup of Nations|1|1996
*sport honours|COSAFA Cup|2|2002, 2007

International record

World Cup

*1930 to 1962 - "Did not enter"
*1966 to 1990 - "Banned from FIFA because of Apartheid "
*1994 - "Did not qualify"
*1998 - Round 1
*2002 - Round 1
*2006 - "Did not qualify"
*2010 - Qualified automatically as host nation

African Nations Cup

*1957 - "Disqualified because of apartheid"
*1959 to 1992 - "Banned from CAF"
*1994 - "Did not qualify"
*1996 - Champions
*1998 - Second place
*2000 - Third place
*2002 - Quarterfinals
*2004 - Round 1
*2006 - Round 1
*2008 - Round 1
*2010 - "Did not qualify"

Coaches

*Jeff Butler (1992)
*Clive Barker (1994-97)
*Jomo Sono (1998)
*Philippe Troussier (1998)
*Trott Moloto (1998-00)
*Carlos Queiroz (2000-02)
*Jomo Sono (2002)
*Ephraim Mashaba (2002-04)
*Stuart Baxter (2004-05)
*Carlos Alberto Parreira (2007-08)
*Joel Santana (2008-current)

Famous players

*Steven Pienaar
*Andre Arendse
*Shaun Bartlett
*Bradley Carnell
*Mark Fish
*Quinton Fortune
*Pierre Issa
*Doctor Khumalo
*Phil Masinga
*Benni McCarthy
*Aaron Mokoena
*John Moshoeu
*Siyabonga Nomvete
*Lucas Radebe
*Hans Vonk
*Sibusiso Zuma
*George Koumantarakis

Most capped

;Defenders

References

External links

* [http://www.safa.net/ South Africa FA official site]
* [http://www.kickoff.com/tournaments/bafana/bafana_players.php?LeagueVar=37#pt List of all Bafana Bafana players ever]