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Another own goal for SABC

Johannesburg - The South African Football Association have been given a new reason to look into their television deal with the SABC.

The public broadcaster, who possess the sole rights to Bafana Bafana games, announced on Sunday it would not be screening the African Nations Cup qualifier between South Africa and Sierra Leone, scheduled for that evening.

It had emerged on Friday that the SABC had not yet made plans to ensure the game in Freetown would be televised.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyako was invited onto radio station Metro FM, where he revealed the organisation "would know in 10 minutes" if they would be showing the encounter or not.

The consensus was the broadcaster would go out of its way to ensure South Africans were able to watch Bafana in action - in what is an extremely important game for the national team.

Carol Manana, one of the hosts of SABC Sport revealed on Twitter: "Bafana game not being shown, announcement is that (the) plane with equipment has been grounded in Cote d'Ivoire (because) of weather."

At the same time, the broadcaster posted a message revealing the match will not be on air during their coverage of the Macufe Cup between Bloemfontein Celtic and Kaizer Chiefs.

The announcement has caused rage amongst Bafana fans, who were eager to watch the 'Battle of Freetown'.

The current deal between SAFA and the SABC, which was penned in April 2005, expires next year and the association is keen on taking their business elsewhere.

They've asked the broadcaster to dig deeper into their pockets, or possibly risk losing the rights to pay channel SuperSport. 
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