Bafana Bafana face the possibility of playing in front of the lowest-ever crowd for their World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso on Saturday.
South Africa are set to duty against the Stallions at the FNB Stadium and will need to garner a victory to keep their hopes of World Cup qualification alive.
It appears that the home side have lost the backing of the nation after it was revealed on Tuesday that only 300 tickets were sold days before the clash.
Organisers have made attempts to save the day by slashing tickets prices by 50%, with tickets going from R100 to R50.
Stadium Management CEO Jacques Grobbelaar spoke to TimesLIVE and confirmed the dire situation.
‘The tickets are not selling that well‚’ he said.
‘We believe the ticket price is still affordable, because the last time we had a Bafana match here against Brazil‚ the ticket price was R80 to R100 and the fans responded very well.
‘This situation has affected our planning in many ways because we can’t even get entertainers. Artists want to perform in front of at least 20 000 fans.
‘How we bump up our entertainment for Saturday will depend on the fans’ response‚ the more we have, the better the entertainment we will have for them on the day‚’ he added.
Safa CEO Dennis Mumble made an attempt to explain the logic behind taking the game to the FNB Stadium and encouraged the fans to come out in their numbers.
‘The decision was taken a long time ago with the view that by the time we play Burkina Faso (on Saturday) the team would have qualified or at least be close to doing so.
‘We didn’t anticipate that we’d have all the problems we’re having at the moment.
‘But we’re still urging our supporters to get behind the team by being at the stadium (on Saturday) because mathematically it’s not all lost for us,’ Mumble concluded.
Photo: Safa.net