South Africa national football team

The South Africa national football team, or Bafana Bafana, is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association. It has only returned to the world stage relatively recently, after years of being banned from FIFA.

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 founder 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, (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 of 1960 it was given an ultimatum of one year to fall in line with the non-discriminatory regulations of FIFA. On September 26 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 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 of 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 retarded, possibly to the point of no recovery. The next annual conference of FIFA in October of 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 July 7, 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 did host and win the 1996 African Nations Cup and will host the 2010 World Cup, the first African nation to do so.

South Africa have recently failed to impress local supporters by not scoring a single goal in the African Nations Cup 2006 this year.

World Cup record

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

African Nations Cup record

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

Most South Africa caps

Player	South Africa career	Caps (Goals)
Shaun Bartlett	1995-present	74 (28)
John Moshoeu	1993-2004	73 (8)
Lucas Radebe	1992-2003	70 (2)
Andre Arendse	1995-2004	67 (0)
Helman Mkhalele	1994-2001	66 (7)
Mark Fish	1993-2004	62 (2)
Benni McCarthy	1997-present	62 (28)
Delron Buckley	1998-present	60 (9)
Phil Masinga	1992-2001	58 (19)
Siyabonga Nomvethe	1999-present	56 (13)

Top South Africa goalscorers

Player	South Africa career	Goals (Caps)
Shaun Bartlett	1995-present	28 (74)
Benni McCarthy	1997-present	28 (62)
Phil Masinga	1992-2001	19 (58)
Siyabonga Nomvethe	1999-present	13 (56)
Donald Wilson	1947	11 (9)
Johnny Claessens	1947-1953	9 (10)
Peter Hughes	1955	9 (5)
Mark Williams	1992-1997	9 (23)
Doctor Khumalo	1992-2001	9 (50)
Delron Buckley	1998-present	9 (60)

Famous players

External links

South Africa FA official site