{"id":6991,"date":"2026-05-31T14:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africas-world-cup-2026-departure-delayed-over-mexican-visa-debacle\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T14:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T14:35:42","slug":"south-africas-world-cup-2026-departure-delayed-over-mexican-visa-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africas-world-cup-2026-departure-delayed-over-mexican-visa-debacle\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s World Cup 2026 departure delayed over Mexican visa debacle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>World Cup delegation held up as players await visa for Mexico, whom South Africa face in the opening game in 11 days.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The South African squad\u2019s departure for the FIFA World Cup has been delayed due to a hold-up in the visas for Mexico, whom they face in the tournament\u2019s opening game in 11 days, the South African Football Association (SAFA) has said.<\/p>\n<p>Bafana Bafana, as South Africa\u2019s national men\u2019s football team is known, were scheduled to depart on a chartered flight from Johannesburg to Mexico City on Sunday morning, but remained grounded as visas for the cohost nation for some squad members were delayed.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/29\/messi-to-captain-argentina-at-world-cup-as-scaloni-plays-down-injury-fears\">Messi to captain Argentina at World Cup as Scaloni plays down injury fears<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/29\/israel-football-dispute-to-heat-up-further-from-ireland-qatar-protests\">Israel football dispute to \u2018heat up\u2019 after protest in Ireland-Qatar match<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/29\/world-cup-2026-how-france-created-footballs-deepest-talent-pool\">\u2018Brazilians of Europe\u2019: How France created football\u2019s deepest talent pool<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/31\/mexico-beat-australia-1-0-a-day-before-world-cup-squad-submission-deadline\">Mexico beat Australia 1-0 before World Cup squad submission deadline<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cThe South African senior men\u2019s national team has experienced challenges regarding visas for some players and officials, and as a result the group could not travel to North America this morning as originally planned,\u201d SAFA said in a media release.<\/p>\n<p>Mexico will host South Africa in the World Cup\u2019s opening game at the Estadio Azteca on June 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSAFA is working around the clock to ensure that the team travels to Mexico City as soon as possible ahead of the opening match,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain committed to ensuring that the team\u2019s preparations for the tournament remain on track and, in the meantime, Bafana Bafana will continue to train in Johannesburg until departure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The squad was given a grand public sendoff in Johannesburg on Saturday before their first appearance in the tournament since hosting it in 2010, but the flight from OR Tambo airport to Mexico City was postponed.<\/p>\n<p>SAFA said it had called an emergency committee meeting later on Sunday to discuss the issue following a vociferous condemnation from Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, who termed it \u201cembarrassing and grossly unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are being made to look like fools,\u201d McKenzie said on social media platform X.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa will warm up for the World Cup with a friendly against Jamaica on June 5. After taking on the cohosts in their opening group clash, they meet Czechia on June 18 and South Korea on June 24.<\/p>\n<p>Hugo Broos announced his 26-man squad on Wednesday, which included two uncapped players.<\/p>\n<p>Amid speculation about the visa bungle, several social media users questioned why the team paraded in Johannesburg before their departure if team officials were aware that players had not been issued visas yet.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa are not the first team to run into a visa-related logistical issue at the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Members of Iran\u2019s World Cup squad have also not been issued visas for the United States, where they play their opening game against New Zealand on June 15 and two other group matches thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>According to Iranian state media reports on Saturday, FIFA has informed the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) vice president Mahdi Mohammadnabi that administrative work is in progress and the visas will be issued this week.<\/p>\n<p>FFIRI president Mehdi Taj said on Wednesday that he expected the US to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/28\/iran-says-us-must-issue-multiple-entry-visas-for-its-world-cup-squad\">issue multiple-entry visas<\/a> for the World Cup delegation since the team will travel in and out of the country for their matches.<\/p>\n<p>Iran relocated its team\u2019s base camp from Arizona, US, to Mexico last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World Cup delegation held up as players await visa for Mexico, whom South Africa face in the opening game in 11 days. The South African squad\u2019s departure for the FIFA World Cup has been delayed due to a hold-up in the visas for Mexico, whom they face in the tournament\u2019s opening game in 11 days, &#8230; <a title=\"South Africa\u2019s World Cup 2026 departure delayed over Mexican visa debacle\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africas-world-cup-2026-departure-delayed-over-mexican-visa-debacle\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about South Africa\u2019s World Cup 2026 departure delayed over Mexican visa debacle\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}