{"id":35224,"date":"2026-05-31T23:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africa-postpones-world-cup-trip-to-mexico-due-to-visa-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T23:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:15:24","slug":"south-africa-postpones-world-cup-trip-to-mexico-due-to-visa-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africa-postpones-world-cup-trip-to-mexico-due-to-visa-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa postpones World Cup trip to Mexico due to visa issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s national men&#8217;s soccer team postponed its trip to Mexico 11 days early due to visa issues. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">world cup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bafana Bafana were scheduled to leave for Mexico on Sunday to begin preparations for the tournament. The team is scheduled to play co-host Mexico. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">Opening game<\/span> June 11th in Mexico City.<\/p>\n<p>South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie commented on the situation: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">&#8220;Embarrassing&#8221;<\/span> But then X said the team was scheduled to leave on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;all <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">@BafanaBafana<\/span> The players received visas to travel to the United States, but the standouts were the assistant coach, team doctor, head of security and one analyst. <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">mackenzie said<\/span>. &#8220;The charter flight leaves tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Visa issues<\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;The South African Senior Men&#8217;s National Team is experiencing difficulties with visas for some of its players and officials, and as a result, the team was unable to travel to North America this morning as originally planned,&#8221; the South African Football Association said in a statement released on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;SAFA is working around the clock to ensure that teams can travel to Mexico City as soon as possible ahead of the opening game of the world championships,&#8221; it said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The team will continue training in Johannesburg, South Africa until departure. SAFA said it would provide an update on the situation after an emergency meeting on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa will also face Czech Republic and South Korea in Group A.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP World Cup coverage: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/fifa-world-cup<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-africa-world-cup-visa-9438fa742f330884243b1bc83e9d964b\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s national men&#8217;s soccer team postponed its trip to Mexico 11 days early due to visa issues. world cup. Bafana Bafana were scheduled to leave for Mexico on Sunday to begin preparations for the tournament. The team is scheduled to play co-host Mexico. Opening game June 11th in Mexico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>South Africa postpones World Cup trip to Mexico due to visa issues - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/south-africa-postpones-world-cup-trip-to-mexico-due-to-visa-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa postpones World Cup trip to Mexico due to visa issues - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s national men&#8217;s soccer team postponed its trip to Mexico 11 days early due to visa issues. world cup. 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