SOUTH Africa are happy they won’t have to travel far for their first World Cup qualifying tie and are counting on some home support from the away fans.
“It’s a fair draw, Lesotho is a good team, but you want to get to the finals, you have to play anybody,” said Raymond Hack, chief executive officer of the South African FA after the draw.
“I’m happy we didn’t draw Sudan, because it’s far away and it makes it a little bit easier for us.
Hack also said South Africa’s troubled bid to host the 2006 World Cup should edge out Morocco’s bid to emerge as the African frontrunner.
“I think that the advantage we have is that we have all the facilities already and Morocco may have to build new facilities,” he said.
“There will be five countries from Africa qualifying for 2002 and hopefully by the time 2006 comes maybe six countries should qualify” with South Africa going through automatically as hosts.