This will be a morale booster for a team that has turned out to be hard to support-owing to obvious reasons one would not want to delve much into.
They have already secured an excellent 2-0 away win over Nigeria in the pool last year, and will face minnows Seychelles (who taught us a lesson) in back-to-back fixtures next month.
My wish is for Bafana to top their log and qualify for the finals to be held in Cameroon in 2019 and, because for one simple reason: the team has not featured in CNA Qualifiers in ages.
Naysers and couch critics are having a ball owing to the team’s performance and the only way to silence that mentality is by banging in goals- showboating does not.
Injuries, issue of controversial appointment of coach Stuart Baxter’s son Lee (goal keeper coach) has left bitter pill to swallow for many, are but some of pointers the team will have to overcome on the field.
On paper Libya are no pushovers but it seems teams rise to the occasion whenever they play Bafana. Yes, the unknowns Seychelles proved that point.
Coach Adel Amrouche, who was part of the line-up of coaches on the list for Bafana post, is a well traveled seasoned character who has done background check on his opponents.
My wish is not to pick-point players, probabilities, who will do what and such, but for Bafana to secure that all important maximum points.
The game is on Saturday September 8 at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Meanwhile, the SABC has until Friday to pay a portion of the R50m they owe to the SA Football Association (Safa) or the nation’s soccer lovers could face a blackout of Saturday’s clash.
Safa president Danny Jordaan met members of the SABC board on Wednesday night in a bid to find common ground as the contractual agreement between the two parties ended in April.
Insiders in both camps told TimesLIVE that the crunch qualifier will only be broadcast on television and radio stations on condition that the SABC pays a third of the R50m that is owed by the public broadcaster from the previous financial year.
The two parties have had a standoff for months and a new contract is yet to be signed‚ mainly due to the financial crisis at the cash-strapped broadcaster.
Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane confirmed this week that Treasury has allowed the SABC to take on more debt to ease its current financial woes.
But the insiders said Safa officials want certain guarantees before the game can be broadcast as the broke public broadcaster has failed to honour its financial obligations for several months now.
‘‘The SABC undertook to pay what they owe Safa and only after that amount has been paid will their cameras and equipment be allowed into the Moses Mabhida Stadium‚” the insider said.
‘‘They have until Friday to pay. Failure to do that‚ Safa will be free to speak to other broadcast partners.”
The SABC issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the game would be broadcast on its platforms.
But it seems this is not the case and as negotiations have not concluded yet.
Safa communications head Dominic Chimhavi confirmed that the negotiations are still on-going and nothing has been finalised yet.
