South Africa coach Hugo Broos is frustrated that his players were unable to train at the stadium ahead of their match against Benin.
This situation arose because Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny was set to host another World Cup qualifier between Ivory Coast and Gambia on Monday night. As a result, neither South Africa nor Benin were able to train at the stadium yesterday.
Bafana Bafana lead Group C of the World Cup qualifiers with 10 points, while Benin is second with 8 points. Additionally, Nigeria, one of Africa’s strongest teams, is also in this group.
Hugo Broos is aware of the importance of this match, which is why he made the following statement regarding the lack of training:
“I am not happy with the decision that we cannot train at the stadium where the match will take place. This is a FIFA rule, and every team has the right to do a 60-minute preliminary training at the stadium on the day of the match.”
“I understand it because there is another match, but it is bad when those who make the rules do not follow them.”
“Will this affect the match? I don’t know. But if I am not at the press conference after the game tomorrow [Tuesday], I will face a sanction. So we must follow the rules.”
“Where are the rules now? And you will tell me, ‘yes, that applies to both teams.’ I don’t think so. I believe Benin has already trained at this stadium because they were here before us.”
“It’s easy to say ‘let’s follow the rules, let’s do this.’ We have to follow everything, but we have the right to train today [Monday] at the stadium where the match is taking place, and we can’t. This is not honest, and this is not correct.”