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Cape Town - The Malagasy Football Federation (FMF) has apologised to the South African Football Federation (SAFA) after declining their invitation to play in a friendly at Orlando Stadium this weekend.
This comes after Zambia, who were originally set to play South Africa in Lusaka, cancelled their fixture on Tuesday following the ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa.
SAFA then came up with a plan 'B' and announced that Madagascar had accepted their invitation for a friendly.
In a press release on Thursday, the FMF revealed that they had to decline SAFA's offer two days prior to kick-off.
Their main reasoning was due to "security of the delegation of Madagascar and Malagasy nationals in South Africa".
"Finally, the FMF apologises to SAFA for the efforts they have begun to organise the meeting, and also supporters of Malagasy football who looked forward to the match," it read.
This weekend's match was supposed to be part of the preparations for the 2021 AFCON qualifiers which commences in November.
An urgent press conference was called in Rosebank later this evening to discuss Bafana's next plan of action.
This was set to be Molefi Ntseki's first official game in charge since he was appointed permanently this past weekend.
Compiled by: Lynn Butler
