‘I drank more than one beer’ – Broos justifies Bafana’s elaborate World Cup party

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has justified why his team had an elaborate post-match celebration after their qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

South Africa sealed their ticket to next year’s tournament last Tuesday after thrashing Rwanda 3-0 while Nigeria aided their course by beating Benin 4-0 on the same day.

Hugo Broos enjoyed a few beers after qualification to the World Cup.

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Bafana Bafana therefore made it to the World Cup for the first time since 2002 and after the game, there were celebrations in the dressing room and beyond that went into the night involving Broos and his staff alongside the players.

“I drank more than one beer,” Broos told reporters on Thursday. “It was very nice, an explosion of emotions after the game and many hours after the game.”

Broos relieved after World Cup qualification

Broos says the big celebrations were justified as his team had come into the final round of qualifiers under immense pressure after having been docked three points by FIFA for fielding Teboho Mokoena against Lesotho in March when he was supposed to be suspended.

What still annoys the veteran coach is that South Africa’s punishment looks to have been orchestrated by one of their rivals as the incident looked to have been sidestepped by FIFA only for the global football governing body to strike six months later.

“Also with the players I think it was the right moment to do it [celebrate] and also because of the suspense in the last two games because we were in a very good position then suddenly, we were deducted the three points,” he added.

Bafana coach slams hidden hand at FIFA

“Okay, we did a mistake but we never thought that it should happen [points deduction] because it was six months after it happened.

“So that shows again the pressure that some countries put on FIFA to reopen the case because there was a commission of conflict that sat three times and never talked about South Africa so we thought okay, no complaint and so nothing.”

The Bafana Bafana coach is now turning his focus on preparations for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations set to take place in Morocco from December 21 to January 18 where South Africa are keen to do better than their third place of 2023.