WATCH | Bafana touch down in Mexico City for the World Cup

Bafana Bafana’s chartered flight has arrived in Mexico, where they will begin their preparations to compete in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

After a day’s delay in their departure from Johannesburg from Sunday to Monday over the controversial non-arrival of their US visas by the weekend due to an alleged South African Football Association bungle, Hugo Broos’s team disembarked in Mexico City in the early hours of Tuesday local time.

Videos shared on social media recorded the team’s arrival.

Bafana meet co-hosts Mexico at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in the 2026 World Cup opening game on June 11 (9pm SA time), a rematch of the first fixture when South Africa hosted the 2010 edition.

The South Africans will be based at Universidad del Futbol y Ciencias del Deporte in Pachuca, 95km outside Mexico City.

Broos wanted to leave at least 10 days before that match because he said it takes that length of time to adjust to high altitude.

Mexico City sits at 2,240m above sea level, 500m above high-altitude Johannesburg (1,750m).

Bafana’s training base in Pachuca sits at 2,430m.

A Tuesday arrival leaves South Africa just about 10 days to adapt to the altitude.

It was not clear if their late departure would affect plans to meet Jamaica in a final warm-up friendly in Mexico on a date to be announced.

Teams and officials travelling to the World Cup obtain US visas, which then also apply for co-hosts Mexico and Canada.

Bafana’s remaining two Group A games are against:

• Czechia (Czech Republic) in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 18 (6pm SA time); and
• South Korea in Guadalupe, Mexico, on June 24 (3am on June 25 SA time).

TimesLIVE