"We are being made to look like fools." That's South Africa's sports minister Gayton McKenzie, and he's not wrong to be furious.
The Bafana Bafana were supposed to fly out on Sunday to prepare for their World Cup opener against co-hosts Mexico on June 11. They didn't. Visa problems for players and officials kept the squad grounded, forcing SAFA to call an emergency committee meeting and scramble for training facilities back in Johannesburg while they wait for clearance.
For context on why this stings: South Africa open the entire tournament. Their match against Mexico is the first game of the 2026 World Cup. There is no softer deadline. Every day stuck at home is a day not spent in San Juan Tilcuautla, not adapting to conditions, not running sessions in the right timezone.
McKenzie isn't pulling punches
The minister went public on social media, calling the situation "embarrassing and grossly unfair towards the players and coaching staff" and demanding a report with accountability. That's a politician telling a federation they've messed up — out in the open, no diplomatic softening.
SAFA hasn't yet named who's responsible for the administrative failure, but the emergency committee meeting suggests they know heads need to roll. Whether that leads to actual consequences or just a press release is another matter.
This isn't just a South Africa problem
Travel chaos has already cast a shadow over this World Cup before a ball has been kicked. Fans from Algeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Cape Verde face bond deposits of up to $15,000 just to enter the United States on a travel visa — part of a new "visa bond pilot program." Cape Verde, qualifying for the men's World Cup for the first time ever with a population of just 525,000, faces that barrier for its own supporters.
Athletes get an exemption, but it comes with "rigorous screening and vetting" from the U.S. government. That process clearly isn't running as smoothly as anyone hoped.
South Africa's preparation odds — if you're thinking about their chances against Mexico — just took a hit that's hard to quantify but impossible to ignore. Disrupted travel, compressed prep time, administrative chaos in the week before your first match. That's a compounding problem, not a minor inconvenience.
"We are being made to look like fools." With the world watching, that quote is going to follow SAFA for a while.
