Africa: Enter at own risk

As Bafana Bafana prepare to travel to Uyo in Nigeria next month for the opening match of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, they will be mindful of the potential for gamesmanship as their hosts seek to make their travel experience as uncomfortable as possible.

Missing buses, delayed fights, seedy hotels and bumpy training pitches are still standard fare in many nations in Africa as clubs and associations seek to gain an advantage by treating their guests with disdain.

But South Africa should be prepared because there have been many such experiences in the past.

The five "craziest" trips ever undertaken by South African football sides on the continent are:

Orlando Pirates at TP Mazembe:

The Congolese club needed to come back from a two-goal deficit in the 2013 CAF Champions League and looked to have fixed it with Seychelles referee Bernard Camille to have everything go in their favour, including two penalties that the late Senzo Meyiwa saved.

To disguise their subterfuge, Mazembe unplugged the planned TV coverage, chasing cameramen from their position and locked up the Pirates security officials for the duration of the 90 minutes and confiscated the mobile phones of reporters.

But Bucs' heroics saw them lose 1-0 only to advance on aggregate.

Bafana Bafana at Congo Brazzaville:

Pointe Noire is a nice seaside town with a casino and some good eateries but AK-47-toting soldiers at the Bafana pre-match training in April 1997 destroyed any illusions.

The military refused to allow the visitors to go into the ground to prepare for their World Cup qualifier, sticking their rifle butts in the stomachs of members of delegation.

It was a 2-0 defeat for Clive Barker's team but they had the last laugh as they beat the Congolese several months later to qualify for a first World Cup finals appearance.

Bafana to Nigeria:

Bafana's first trip to West Africa was in 1992 to play the Super Eagles in Lagos in a World Cup qualifier, just months after rejoining Fifa.

Safa arranged with SAA that their flight to Abidjan could land in Lagos to drop off the squad. But when the plane approached Lagos, the Nigerians refused permission to land, forcing the squad to go on to the Ivory Coast, where they were stranded without cash.

The hosts need not have bothered. Bafana were thumped 4-0 .

Kaizer Chiefs to Esperance:

Those who wonder why Chiefs never seem as enthusiastic about playing in African club competition must look at footage of their 2005 CAF Champions League clash.

The first leg away was so scandalously refereed by the Egyptian Ahmed Auda that Chiefs were on a hiding to nothing.

Chiefs' elimination meant they dropped down to the Caf Confederation Cup and they subsequently withdrew, incurring a two-year suspension.

Jomo Cosmos to DC Motema Pembe:

There were no direct flights to Zaire in 1993 when Cosmos went to play in the African Cup Winners' Cup quarterfinal. Instead, they flew Air Afrique to Brazzaville and took the two-hour ferry across the mighty Congo River, arriving on the other side, where predictably there was no one to meet the side. - TMG Digital/TMG Sport