Failing to qualify was seen by most people in South Africa as a task that was harder than actually qualifying given that they only had Ghana, Sudan, and the lowly Sao Tome and Principe in their way. With two teams guaranteed to progress from the group, it seemed improbable that South African wouldn’t qualify, but this is a football team that have sadly become the masters of serving up the unfathomable.

Needing just a draw away to Sudan to guarantee a place at next year's tournament in Cameroon, Bafana Bafana predictably imploded and ended up losing 2-0, ending all hopes of qualification. It was one of South African football’s more farcical days in a long while, given that just prior to kick-off, the SABC - the nation's state broadcaster - informed viewers that they hadn’t managed to secure the rights to the game due to ‘exorbitant costs.’ 

The SABC can confirm that the public service broadcaster couldn't secure the broadcasting rights of the match between the Bafana and Sudan due to the exorbitant costs and as a result this match will not be aired on any of the SABC platforms.

Moments later, the official Twitter account of South African football posted a series of links to illegal streams for the public to watch so that they could keep up with the goings-on of all the action at the Al-Hilal Stadium in Sudan. As awkwardly humorous as it is, it does give the outside world a glimpse into how shambolically run the South African Football Association is at this moment in time.  

Following the disappointment in Sudan, it was announced that head coach Molefi Ntseki had been fired as Bafana Bafana desperately prepared a band-aid approach in order to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar next year.  

Unsurprisingly, the latest sports betting markets don’t have South Africa among their list of potential winners of next year’s World Cup in the Middle East. Indeed, a provisional list of 55 teams have been given odds on winning the event, despite only 32 being able to qualify. With the World Cup qualifiers beginning in June for South Africa, you can understand that, on account of the current state of turmoil the national side is in, they wouldn’t be fancied to make it to Qatar, let alone win the tournament.

The truth, however, is that this isn’t a blip. The last World Cup South Africa qualified for was in 2002 when South Korea and Japan jointly hosted the tournament. It was only by default that South Africa qualified for the 2010 World Cup, as they were the hosts, but disaster was still to follow as they became the first host nation in history not to reach the knockout stages.

In reality, it has been two decades of failure that can’t be blamed on a lack of skill, for the talent in the rainbow nation is vast and unquestionable. Rather, South Africans have been let down by an administration that is self-serving and not driven by results on the pitch. Until that changes, Bafana Bafana will remain unfixable.

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