|
Mark Gleeson
BBC Sport, Cape Town
|
Mandela is expected to attend the match
|
South African football chiefs have finally confirmed that Bafana Bafana will play Nigeria in the Nelson Mandela Challenge match on 17 November.
But the South African Football Association (Safa) still has to decide on the match venue for the annual fixture. Safa say an announcement will be made in the next days.
The game will be the final international of what has been a disappointing year for Bafana Bafana. They lost 4-0 to the Super Eagles in the African Nations Cup finals in Tunisia earlier this year.
Next month's clash will be the fifth meeting between the two countries, with the Nigerians having won three of them and the other being drawn.
Incredibly, South Africa have yet to score a goal against Nigeria in six hours of football.
It is more than a decade since Nigeria's only other appearance in South Africa when they drew 0-0 at Soccer City in Johannesburg in a World Cup qualifier.
The Super Eagles were also supposed to play in the 1996 African Nations Cup finals but withdrew as a result of the political spat between former dictator Sani Abacha and South African president Nelson Mandela.
Relations between the two deteriorated when Mandela condemned the Nigerian military regime for executing Ogoniland activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
South Africa are paying Nigeria around US$60,000 to play in the annual tribute match but in return the west Africans must bring a full-strength squad.
Previous meetings
10 October 1992 (Lagos): Nigeria 4-0 South Africa
16 January 1993 (Johannesburg): South Africa 0-0 Nigeria
10 February 2000 (Lagos): Nigeria 2-0 South Africa
31 January 2004 (Monastir, Tunisia): Nigeria 4-0 South Africa
~RS~a~RS~Domestic~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~59~RS~){kind=small}
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
