The South African Football Association has announced that it has decided not to call off any games because the coronavirus is not yet an epidemic in South Africa, but says the situation could change quickly.

The number of infections in the country has risen to 24 as of Friday, 13 March, while widespread infection across the world has caused a total shutdown of sport across the continent.

Safa finally responded to the matter on Saturday, stating it will await instruction from national government, Caf or Fifa before making any decision.

The Safa statement reads:

‘We wish to acknowledge that the coronavirus is here with us. A number of cases have been reported by the government and the health authorities. The sad news is that the number of people who have been affected by the virus is still growing at this stage.

‘However, the positive news is that the disease is not an epidemic in our country as yet. We have full confidence in our health authorities. We have seen critical patients getting better after coming into contact with the virus.

‘As the football family of South Africa, we are taking our cue from our government, represented by the Department of Health and our football mother bodies, Fifa and Caf. We will be guided by these authorities in all the decisions that we will be taking.

‘On our own, we have already taken measures to minimise traveling of our teams to severely affected areas. Last month, we withdrew our Olympic Team from participating in a friendly in Japan.

‘We have already developed precautionary measures for all our members, teams and clubs to use as a guideline to minimise contact with the virus. These measures have been posted on our website. We have also sent a circular to all our members advising them about the precautionary measure.

‘We welcome Caf’s decision to postpone all our matches during the 25 to 31 March 2020 period. This means that our senior men’s national team, Bafana Bafana, will not be playing Sao Tome e Principe in two weeks. However, the Bantwana [U17 girls) match will continue as scheduled on 14 March 2020 at the Wits Stadium, Johannesburg.

‘It is our considered view that there is no need to panic at this stage. The virus is not an epidemic yet. We are positive that the situation will improve rather than worsen. We believe that there is no need to either suspend or postpone the football program in the country at this stage.

‘This position could change, pending the developments in the spread of the virus. We are reviewing the situation on a continuous basis,’ it concluded.