The South Africa national football team, or Bafana Bafana, is the national team of South Africa and is controlled by the South African Football Association. It has recently returned to the world order after years of being suspended and expelled from FIFA.
South Africa was first debarred from FIFA in 1962 for the country's apartheid regime. They were re-admitted a year later, but after deciding to take an all-white team to the 1966 World Cup and an all-black team to the 1970 one, got debarred again in 1964. In 1976, after the Soweto uprising, they got expelled from FIFA.
In 1991, the new non-racial South African Football Association was formed. On July 7, 1992, the South African national team played their first game in decades, beating Cameroon.
Since being re-admitted, South Africa made the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, but failed to get out of the first round each time. They were host to and won the 1996 African Nations Cup and will host the 2010 World Cup, the first African nation to do so.
After being deprived of entering the 2006 World Cup the South African team, also known as Bafana Bafana, will be trying to make a performance worthy of their achievements. South Africa will host the 2010 World Cup finals, being the first African country to assume that respect.
In 1993 Bafana Bafana moved beyond Africa's shores for the first time for a match against Mexico in Los Angeles. The following year, the team traveled to Australia for two matches.
In the same year, South Africa hosted the Four Nations tournament for the first time, with Bafana Bafana and Côte d'Ivoire sharing the title. in 1994, the first Nelson Mandela Inauguration Challenge was played as a tribute to South Africa's first democratically elected President.
Bafana Bafana secured the honors in the Four Nations Cup in 1995, and in the same year faced two of world soccer's powers, Argentina and Germany, in Johannesburg.
In 1997 Bafana Bafana achieved mark when the team qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time. South Africa also played in Asia for the first time that year when they took part in the Confederations Cup in Saudi Arabia. The team won the Fifa Best Mover of the Year Award for demonstrations that brought them up the world rankings.
| 
