Ramatsiyi Moholoa

Ramatsiyi Moholoa

The Football Association of Namibia has put its foot down and refused to play a friendly with a skeleton Bafana Bafana squad in Kimberley on November 4.

Clearly, Namibia did not want the match to be turned into an exhibition game where teams can have seven or more substitutes as it occurred in a Bafana game against Malawi.

John Munjo, the federation's president, said: "We made it clear to Safa that the game in question must take place on a Fifa date.

"We want to play against a full strength team with your foreign legion also back in the team to give us an idea on the areas where we have to improve.

"It does not make sense to send a skeleton team to South Africa, we want a team that will make the whole of Namibia proud."

Munjo said they wanted to play Bafana Bafana on November 19, which turns out to be the day SA play Cameroon in the the Mandela Challenge in Rustenburg.

"November 19 is also out of question for a game with Bafana Bafana because you are playing against Cameroon," said Munjo.

"We have already started making enquiries with the other top countries to find out who is available for that Fifa date (November 19).

"I think we should be able to make an announcement regarding the opposition before the end of this week, but for November 4 in Kimberley it won't materialise."

Sowetan then put a call through to Safa. After this Safa chief Raymond Hack issued a statement to announce that the Bafana Bafana game against Namibia was off.