SA U17’s trip to Colombia hanging in the balance

Amajimbos as the team is popularly known are believed to still be at their base camp, at the SAFA Technical Centre (Fun Valley), owing to some traveling complications, and will not be on a flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil via Luanda, Angola this afternoon as originally planned.

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Amajimbos, who have not been in action since the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Algeria in 2023, have been invited to Santiago de Cali by their Colombian counterparts to play two international friendly matches as they continue with preparations for the upcoming COSAFA U-17 Championships and the 2025 AFCON qualifiers.

The Vela Khumalo coached team has been in camp for almost a week now, playing a series of training matches, and preparing for this trip. They were initially scheduled to depart for Colombia on Friday, 13 April with the games set for 17 and 20 April.

But over the weekend, SAFA updated on their social media platforms that there had since been a delay to their departure date. It’s believed that these changes were necessitated by delayed VISAS at the time, with flights already booked for last Friday’s departure.

“Although the U17 National Team was meant to travel to Colombia yesterday, circumstances beyond our control didn’t allow for this to happen.

“The team is still in South Africa and will continue to prepare for the international friendlies at the SAFA Technical Centre (Fun Valley), until they leave early next week,” read the update on SAFA social media platforms last Saturday.

SABC Sport reported earlier today that SAFA President Danny Jordaan was still hopeful that the team [Amajimbos] would travel to Colombia this week to honour this invite as they look to intensify their preparations for the qualifiers. But this was before the latest developments. 

''Below that we have junior teams, U17, U20. Our U17 team is now making final preparations to go play an international match against Colombia. Why is that important, because FIFA took a decision that every year there will be a World Cup,'' said Jordaan on Saturday after the 32nd SAFA Ordinary Congress.

The dates for the rearranged friendly matches are 19 and 21 April 2024 and it’s still not clear if the trip will go ahead but SAFA are expected to release a statement this afternoon, to give an update on the latest developments.