Bafana Bafana players were hauled out of their rooms at 11pm by South African Football Association delegates on the night before their 2002 World Cup match against Spain‚ says ex-national team midfielder Delron Buckley.

The revelation was made at the launch of Buckley’s book‚ “Delron Buckley‚ My Life” in Durban on Friday.

Having drawn 2-2 against Paraguay and beaten Slovenia 1-0‚ there was much controversy at the time of coach Jomo Sono not having communication from a simultaneous match as Bafana lost 3-2 against Spain in their final Group B game‚ when a draw would have been enough.

Buckley‚ though‚ asserts that a late-night pre-match meeting that the players were dragged to on the eve of the game created ill-feeling and had an effect on the result.

“Against Spain there was a chance that we could qualify for the next round‚” the ex-Borussia Dortmund and VfL Bochum player said.

“And before the tournament negotiations had been done that the players were going to earn this amount of money and that amount of money if we do this and that.

“And the night before the match at 11pm we got knocks on our doors to come for a meeting with the [Safa] delegation.

“And then we sit there with the delegation and they’re negotiating to bring the amount down.

“Because I think they had the feeling that we were going to qualify.

“And so the money they were going to pay‚ which they had negotiated with the players‚ was going to be a lot because of what they’d promised the players before.

“But there was no contract — it was only verbal.

“So it brought in a bad atmosphere because the players thought we were going to earn ‘this’ but now one night before you get told‚ ‘Were only going to pay you this and this’.

“It brought lots of friction within the squad that night‚ and that’s why the next day they couldn’t put on a show.”

Buckley’s biography has been co-written by Myan Subrayan‚ who also co-wrote former SuperSport United and Bafana defender Ricardo Katza’s book.

— TMG Digital