Retailers have made it easier for supporters to back Bafana, just as in the case of the Boks, without relying on cheap counterfeit merchandise.
Bafana Bafana fans during the FIFA World Cup 2026 South Africa Fan Send Off event at DP World Wanderers Stadium on May 30, 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Picture: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
The World Cup kicks off on Thursday night and Bafana Bafana are right there, opening the tournament with Mexico, in a wonderful full circle moment to that wonderful time 16 years ago at Soccer City.
There’ll be no vuvuzelas allowed, but for those of us who remember 2010, that won’t be the only thing that Fifa will be banning.
But, as we discovered during the Covid lockdown, the world finds a way when things are banned.
You can’t think of Joburg in 2010 without roadside touts at intersections selling SA flag mirror sleeves and Bafana shirts aplenty.
Once Bafana were eliminated there were Argentina shirts, Ghana shirts and Spanish shirts.
That team took a stroll around Zoo Lake on the morning of the final without a care in the world, possibly the coolest human beings you could ever imagine. They won the tournament that night.
The point is that for those who just wanted to be part of the gees, the illegal trade sated that need.
It was the same for many years about the Boks – you couldn’t drive through Joburg on a Test Saturday without the roadside vendors hawking really kak kit that managed to merge sponsors and world cup designs onto the same jersey.
The good news is that instead of lashing back, the administrators got clever.
The Boks, with their partnership with Pick n Pay, have brought out a really great range of affordable fan gear from hats to T-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys and pyjamas, nogal, that killed the trade.
Mr Price has done the same with Bafana. You can get Bafana kit at a fraction of the price of the match-day stuff, just like PnP with Boks.
It’s not the match-day stuff, but it’s real and it’s approved – and that’s the thing.
It’s about supporting the team – and the retailers are making it possible without us having to go to roadside touts shifting contraband, or truly bad imitations – and keep the money where it belongs – in the game.
There’s the usual stir of malcontents on social media about rugby getting it right on Bok Friday while Bafana doesn’t get a look in because nobody cares about Bafana and it’s all about WMC (white monopoly capital for those who didn’t live through the Bell Pottinger debacle).
It’s nonsense, so let’s treat it as such and get down to enjoying the greatest spectacle on earth, Fifa’s inaugural Peace Prize notwithstanding.
