South Africa World Cup trip delayed by visa bungle

South Africa’s World Cup departure was thrown into disarray at OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday, 31 May 2026, after visas had not yet been issued for some players and staff, delaying a charter flight to the team’s training base in Pachuca, Mexico. The squad had been due to leave early in the morning, but the trip stalled before takeoff, cutting into the limited preparation time before the opener against Mexico in Mexico City on 11 June 2026.

The scale of the administrative failure sharpened the embarrassment. FarPost reported that about 20 members of the travelling delegation were still waiting for visas, even though some applications had been submitted as early as February 2026. That delay matters because the journey to Mexico was expected to take about 18 to 22 hours by charter flight, leaving Hugo Broos’ team with fewer days to settle in, train and adjust before a warm-up match against Jamaica and Group A fixtures against the Czech Republic in Atlanta on 18 June and South Korea in Monterrey on 24 June.

Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie demanded a report from the South African Football Association and said action had to be taken against those responsible. He called the situation embarrassing and grossly unfair to the players and coaching staff, saying South Africa were being made to look like fools. The criticism put SAFA, which would have been responsible for the team’s travel administration, under immediate scrutiny over how a national squad preparing for the biggest tournament in football could be left waiting on paperwork at the airport.

The delay carries a wider reputational cost as well. South Africa are heading to a World Cup for the first time since hosting the tournament in 2010, a return that should have been framed around readiness and momentum. Instead, the buildup has been overshadowed by another avoidable breakdown, arriving only months after FIFA stripped South Africa of three qualifying points for fielding Teboho Mokoena while he was suspended in a March 2025 win over Lesotho. Even with that sanction, South Africa finished a point ahead of Nigeria and Benin in their qualifying group, but the latest visa failure raises a more damaging question: whether the structures meant to support elite international competition are competent enough to do so without public embarrassment.