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The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Minister of Sport and Recreation over the fact that Bafana Bafana will play a line up of second, third and fourth division teams as part of their World Cup preparation - a far from optimal situation that appears to have been the consequence of poor planning, professional ineptitude and what appears to be a total failure to consult with national head coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

SAFA receives public money, as such it should account to the public. The Minister is the right person to interrogate them on this matter.

With one exception (China, ranked 84th), Bafana Bafana will not face any fully-fledged international teams before the historic football event. The fact is that, having spent a reported R20-million of Lotto money on their training camps in Brazil and Germany, and having spent tens of millions of rands on the salary of Carlos Alberto Parreira, we are now, at the very last minute, seriously jeopardising Bafana Bafana's preparations for this tournament.

The Minister needs to get an explanation from SAFA about how this situation has been brought about. It is imperative that a contingency plan be made, and more challenging opposition found for Bafana Bafana ahead of the tournament. It is crucial that the minister takes the lead in ensuring that SAFA turns the situation around.

Coach Parreira is understandably angry with Safa officials. The line-up of teams Bafana Bafana is to face during their trip to Germany is clearly not of the required standard and will not provide the South African side with the proper competitive, international exposure they need in order to be adequately prepared for the World Cup. The fixtures SAFA has arranged have been described in the German media as ‘fish and chips' teams, and include FC Nuremberg's reserve team, who play in the German Fourth Division, SpVgg Greuther Fuerth (second division), and SpVgg Unterhachting (third division).

The World Cup is the international sporting event of the year and South Africans of all walks of life will be looking to their team to perform. Safa's poor and short-sighted planning needs to be addressed now, before it is too late.