The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for soccer in South Africa. Nicknamed Bafana Bafana (lit. "Young Men" in Zulu), the team plays at various stadiums around the country. The team, a member of both FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), is one of the most well-supported national sides in Africa, and are recognised by their traditional green and gold kits.
Having played their first match in 1906, South Africa returned to the world stage in 1992, after sixteen years of being banned from FIFA, and forty years of effective suspension due to the apartheid system. South Africa have qualified for the FIFA World Cup four times: 1998, 2002 and 2026, and qualifying as hosts of the 2010 tournament, becoming the first African nation to do so. Despite defeating France 2–1 in their final game of the group stage, they failed to progress from the first round of the tournament, becoming the first host nation in the history of the FIFA World Cup to exit in the group stage, followed by Qatar in 2022. As of August 2026, the team is ranked 54th in FIFA International Rankings.
South Africa's most significant achievement came in 1996 when they hosted and won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). They reached the final again in 1998 but were defeated by Egypt. Later in 2000, they earned a bronze medal (third place) by defeating Tunisia (2–2 a.e.t, 4–3 on penalties) and in 2023 earned another bronze medal (third place) by defeating the Democratic Republic of the Congo (0–0 a.e.t; 6–5 on penalties).
History
Pre-1992 Football first arrived in South Africa through colonialism in the late nineteenth century, as the game was popular among British soldiers. From the earliest days of the sport in South Africa until the end of apartheid, organised soccer was affected by the country's system of racial segregation. The all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA) was formed in 1892, while the South African Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the South African Bantu Football Association (SABFA) and the South African Black Football Association (SACFA) were founded in 1903, 1933 and 1936 respectively.
In 1903 the SAFA re-affiliated with the English Football Association after the Second Boer War between the British Empire and the Boer state. There was a plan to play a tournament held in Argentina, with South Africa and Fulham as guest teams, but it was not carried out. Nevertheless, South Africa traveled to South America in 1906 to play a series of friendly matches there.Before The 'D'...Association Football around the world, 1863–1937 , page 4
South Africa played a total of 12 matches in South America, winning 11 with 60 goals scored and only 7 conceded. Opponents included Belgrano A.C., the Argentina national team, a combined Liga Rosarina, Estudiantes (BA) and Quilmes.Gira Sudamericana de Sudáfrica 1906 on Fútbol Nostalgia website The only team that defeated South Africa was Argentina's Alumni 1–0 at Sociedad Sportiva stadium in Buenos Aires, on 24 June, although the South Africans would take revenge on 22 July, defeating them 2–0. The players were exclusively white, civil servants, government employees, bankers and civil engineers. Seven of the 15 players were born in South Africa and 8 originated from England and Scotland.
South Africa was one of four African nations to attend FIFA's 1953 congress, at which the four demanded, and won, representation on the FIFA executive committee.Goldblatt, The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football, p493 Thus the four nations (South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan) founded the Confederation of African Football in 1956, and the South African representative, Fred Fell, sat at the first meeting as a founding member. It soon became clear however that South Africa's constitution prohibited racially mixed teams from competitive sport, and so they could only send either an all-black side or an all-white side to the planned 1957 African Cup of Nations. This was unacceptable to the other members of the Confederation, and South Africa was disqualified from the competition, however, some sources say that they withdrew voluntarily.
At the second CAF conference in 1958, South Africa were formally expelled from CAF. The all-white FASA were admitted to FIFA in the same year, but in August 1960 it was given an ultimatum of one year to fall in line with the non-discriminatory regulations of FIFA. On 26 September 1961 at the annual FIFA conference, the South African association was formally suspended from FIFA. Sir Stanley Rous, president of The Football Association of England and a champion of South Africa's FIFA membership, was elected FIFA President a few days later. Rous was adamant that sport, and FIFA in particular, should not embroil itself in political matters and against fierce opposition, he continued to resist attempts to expel South Africa from FIFA. The suspension was lifted in January 1963 after a visit to South Africa by Rous in order to investigate the state of soccer in the country.
Rous declared that if the suspension were not lifted, soccer there would be discontinued, possibly to the point of no recovery. The next annual conference of FIFA in October 1964 took place in Tokyo and was attended by a larger contingent of representatives from African and Asian associations and here the suspension of South Africa's membership was re-imposed. In 1976, after the Soweto uprising, they were formally expelled from FIFA.
In 1991, when the apartheid system was beginning to be demolished, a new multi-racial South African Football Association was formed, and admitted to FIFA – and thus finally allowing South Africa to enter the qualifying stages for subsequent World Cups.
1992–2000 After spending nearly two decades in international isolation, the South African national team played its first game on 7 July 1992, beating Cameroon 1–0 at Kings Park in Durban.
The team entered the 1994 Cup of Nations qualifiers and was placed in Group 5, along with Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They won one game, away to Mauritius, and drew with Mauritius and Zimbabwe at home. The team finished third in the group and failed to qualify.
For the 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifiers South Africa was placed in Group D, along with Congo, Libya and Nigeria. Libya withdrew from the qualifiers. South Africa finished second in the group, and failed to qualify for the next stage of qualifying.
In 1996, a mere five years after readmission, South Africa achieved their finest moment when they hosted and won the 1996 African Cup of Nations, in the process of reaching 16th in the FIFA rankings.
The shock firing of AFCON-winning coach Clive Barker did little to slow momentum as they followed their 1996 success with a second-place finish at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations behind Egypt under Jomo Sono. The team had earned their first appearance at the FIFA World Cup, qualifying for France '98. Under head coach Philippe Troussier, South Africa suffered a 3–0 defeat to hosts France in their World Cup debut, and drew against Denmark and Asian juggernauts Saudi Arabia 1–1 and 2–2 respectively on their way to an early exit.
2000s Under newly hired coach Trott Moloto, South Africa started the decade off strongly, finishing third in the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations; despite this, another coaching change was made. Portuguese Carlos Queiroz was hired as the man to take South Africa to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. South Africa qualified for the 2002 AFCON and were eliminated in the quarter-finals against hosts Mali. In the run-up to the World Cup, in which South Africa had easily qualified as winners of Group E, Queiroz left his post as head coach amid increasing behind-the-scenes political wrangling.
Former legend Jomo Sono was brought back in a caretaker capacity to lead South Africa in Korea/Japan. Placed in Group B along with Spain, Paraguay and debutants Slovenia, South Africa earned a 2–2 draw against Paraguay in their opening game with a last-gasp penalty from Quinton Fortune and followed that up with their first-ever victory at the finals with a 1–0 win over Slovenia. South Africa headed into their final game against Spain second in the group and three points clear of Paraguay and Slovenia. In arguably the game of the group, in which five goals were scored inside the hour, South Africa twice came from a goal down in an agonising 3–2 defeat to the Spanish. In the other game, which kicked off at the same time, Paraguay found themselves beating Slovenia 3–1, with Paraguay's goal difference enough for them to surpass South Africa.
South Africa would go through 4 head coaches between the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups: Ephraim Mashaba (2002–2004), April Phumo (2004), Stuart Baxter (2004–2005), Ted Dumitru (2005–2006) and caretaker Pitso Mosimane (2006). None of them were able to match the success seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as South Africa failed to progress beyond the group stages in either the 2004 or 2006 Africa Cups of Nations, failing to register a single goal in the latter, with South Africa failing to qualify for the World Cup. After being placed in Group 2 for qualifying, South Africa missed the tournament in Germany by finishing behind Ghana.
Former World Cup winner and Brazil national team coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was approached for the job, and he accepted. He signed a R100 million contract covering four years. His term as manager started 1 January 2007 targeting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which South Africa had been awarded the right to host. He resigned as coach in April 2008 due to family reasons. Joel Santana was hand-picked by Parreira to succeed him and he was signed to coach the team until 2010.CNN
The World Cup hosts failed to qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, and Parreira would return in time for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup – also hosted by South Africa. The national team would see an improvement in performance, holding its own against eventual world champions Spain and perennial powerhouse Brazil, the latter requiring an 88th-minute goal to overcome South Africa in the semi-finals. South Africa would ultimately finish 4th, following a thrilling 3–2 loss to the Spanish in the third-place match.
As World Cup hosts, South Africa was placed in Group A, along with Mexico, Uruguay and 2006 runners-up France. South Africa played the first game, which opened the World Cup 2010 tournament with a 1–1 draw against Mexico after taking the lead through a long-range Siphiwe Tshabalala strike. A heavy 3–0 defeat in the second group game against Uruguay and a Mexican win over France left South Africa with a mountain to climb in order to progress beyond the group stage. Despite defeating France, elimination in the group stage made South Africa become the first host to fail to progress beyond the first round of the World Cup.
Following the conclusion of the World Cup and the expiration of his contract, Carlos Alberto Parreira announced his retirement from coaching. As part of his contract, Parreira had also drawn up a plan of recommendations extending as far as soccer development at grassroots level that SAFA was encouraged to review in the hopes of reviving the fortunes of the national football team.
2010s