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Snub hits Bafana match organiser

The seeming lack of interest in Saturday's World Cup qualifier between Bafana Bafana and Burkina Faso at FNB Stadium is a big setback for the organisers, who will fork out in the region of R5-million to stage the make-or-break fixture for South Africa.

Stadium Management SA (SMSA), which manages the 90000-capacity arena, has been forced to lower some of its targets with the game fast approaching.

Although it was widely reported that only 300 tickets were sold by Tuesday, SMSA chief executive Jaques Grobbelaar said "it was in fact the number of hospitality tickets".

"Tickets are selling slow. We were planning on 40000 [fans] but we hope to get 20000. We didn't look at it as a medium-attended but a capacity-attended [game]. We are using the Bafana game to plan for the Soweto derby on October 21," Grobbelaar told Sowetan yesterday.

Two people died at the last Soweto derby at FNB Stadium in July and Saturday's fixture would have put some logistics to test to avoid a repeat of the tragedy that befell the Carling Cup clash between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

"We are sitting on 15000 that have already been sold. We as Stadium Management will subsidise tickets from R100 to R50. Those who have already bought tickets [for R100] can redeem their stubs for a beer - one 500ml of beer," he added.

Grobbelaar conceded that the business would take a knock.

"We have built relations with football and sometimes I am prepared to lose a bit and make some at a later stage. The costs are running into millions," he said, without divulging the exact figure.

Safa chief executive Dennis Mumble recently revealed that "it's a minimum of R5-million that we spend to put a single Bafana match together" when he was counting the losses of staging the now nullified November qualifier against Senegal at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.

When asked if this was what possibly went into organising Saturday's game, Grobbelaar said "yes, more or less".

He also joined the chorus of Bafana players pleading for support from the people, who are clearly despondent after back-to-back defeats to Cape Verde last month.

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