- The new Bafana Bafana coach will not be unveiled on Saturday as initially indicated.
- SAFA said delayed the announcement to next week due to "Covid-19 travel issues".
- The new coach is likely to be Carlos Queiroz, who looks set to return to South Africa for a second spell in charge of the national team.
Saturday's scheduled announcement of the new Bafana Bafana coach has been postponed due to Covid-19 travel issues, the South African Football Association (SAFA) announced on Friday evening.
"We will reschedule the announcement to next week and further updates will be provided. We apologise for the inconvenience caused," the soccer governing body said in a statement.
As was reported by Sport24 on Thursday, the new coach is likely to be Carlos Queiroz, who looks set to return to South Africa for a second spell in charge of the national team.
The Real Madrid manager and Manchester United assistant managerwas in charge of Bafana Bafana for two years from 2000, taking the team to the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals and qualifying them for the 2002 World Cup.
He was axed before the World Cup in South Korea and went on to lead Portugal (2010) and Iran (2014, 2018) in subsequent editions.
BREAKING:The Bafana Bafana coach announcement scheduled for Saturday, 24 April 2021 has been postponed due to global Covid-19 travel issues.
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) April 23, 2021
We will reschedule the announcement to next week and further updates will be provided here.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Queiroz, now 68, guided Real Madrid for one year from 2003, either side of spells as senior assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
His most recent post was coach of Colombia, who sacked him last December with the nation lying seventh in the 10-team South American 2022 World Cup qualifying group.
Queiroz is favourite to succeed Molefi Ntseki, who was fired after South Africa lost in Sudan and failed to qualify for the 2021 Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Ntseki had been a controversial choice as he had no senior-level coaching experience before succeeding England-born Stuart Baxter in the top post.
South Africa launch their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign in June with Group G matches against Zimbabwe (away) and Ghana (home).
Ethiopia are also in the section and only the winners of the six-round mini-league advance to the final qualifying stage where two-leg playoffs will determine which five African nations go to Qatar.