The South Africa national football team represents South Africa in association football and is controlled by the South African Football Association, the governing body for football in South Africa. South Africa's home ground is Soccer City, known as FNB Stadium due to a naming rights deal, in Johannesburg. The team's current head coach is Gordon Igesund. They returned to the world stage in 1992, after years of being banned from FIFA due to the apartheid system. In 2010, South Africa became the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup when it hosted the 19th FIFA World Cup in June and July 2010. The team's Siphiwe Tshabalala was also the first person to score in this World Cup during the opening game against Mexico. Despite defeating France 2–1 in their final game of the Group Stage, they failed to progress from the first round of the tournament. In failing to proceed, they became the first host nation to exit in the group stage. They however performed better than other African teams who were representing the continent except for Côte d'Ivoire. Interestingly, while South Africa automatically had a position in the World Cup final as hosts and therefore did not need to qualify, they did participate in the qualifying process as this doubled-up as qualification for the African Cup of Nations in 2010. As it transpired, 'Bafana Bafana' failed to get past the first round of qualification and as such missed out on a Nations Cup berth, meaning they would not have qualified for the World Cup if they were not the host nation.
South Africa hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2009. The team's highest achievement was winning the African Cup of Nations at home in 1996, a tournament they also participated in the qualifying rounds for despite being the host nation, although they were selected as hosts after their qualification began, forcing them to withdraw.
Read more about South Africa National Football Team: Nickname, Home Stadium, Historical Kits, Media Coverage, Sponsors, Recent and Future Matches, Technical Team, Honours
Famous quotes containing the words football team, south, africa, national, football and/or team:
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)
“I know no East or West, North or South, when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there shall I go.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)
“Success and failure in our own national economy will hang upon the degree to which we are able to work with races and nations whose social order and whose behavior and attitudes are strange to us.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“They’re two good old friends of mine. I call them Constitution and The Bill of Rights. A most dependable team for long journeys. Then I’ve got another one called Missouri Compromise. And a Supreme Court—a fine, dignified horse, though you have to push him on every now and then.”
—Dan Totheroh (1895–1976)