Lesotho vs South Africa: Venue change for Bafana Bafana’s World Cup qualifier

Bafana Bafana will play their World Cup qualifier against Lesotho at a different venue and not the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein as it had initially been planned.

This is after world football governing body FIFA ordered the host nation Lesotho to seek an alternative venue as the stadium in Bloemfontein is in poor conditions and unsuitable to host such a match.

According to SABC, the match will now be held at the Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium in Rocklands instead, which is less than half the 45,000-seater Free State Stadium, as it can only accommodate 22,000.

Broos was concerned by ‘awful’ pitch

The Toyota Stadium is home to the Toyota Cheetahs and has hosted four of their Currie Cup fixtures this season but there have been concerns over the state of the pitch, which dates back to the 2025 COSAFA Cup, with players reportedly picking up injuries at the venue.

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was among those who had reservations about playing there and made his feelings known on Monday, calling the pitch “awful.”

“Then third is the pitch – it’s a saga. I’ve already called it the Bloemfontein saga,” Broos said as quoted by OFm

FIFA yields to Bafana Bafana’s demands

“First of all, we played in Bloemfontein against Zimbabwe last year. I went to see the pitch last week. It was awful. Really awful. Such a bad pitch.

“Then there has been a control of FIFA and CAF. I don’t know when. So suddenly, we got a message on Saturday that we won’t play in the stadium because of the condition of the pitch. We didn’t know where we had to play.

“We made contact with Lesotho, and they didn’t know anything about it. On Sunday, we received a letter that we will play in the second stadium, the little stadium, and not in the big stadium,” added Broos, confirming the change of venue.

Bafana Bafana will play Lesotho on Friday with kick off scheduled at 18:00.