SA's path to African U23 Championships and the Olympic Games became a little clearer

South Africa’s path to the African Under-23 Championships in Egypt next year‚ and the Olympic Games in 2020‚ became a little clearer after it was confirmed that they would face Angola in the second round of qualifying for the tournament.

Angola were due to meet Namibia in the first round qualifiers starting this weekend‚ with the winner to take on SA‚ who had been handed a bye.

But Namibia withdrew from the qualifiers on Wednesday‚ pushing Angola automatically through to a meeting with SA in the two-legged second round in March next year.

The victor in that tie will face either Zimbabwe or Eswatini/Mozambique in the final round of the preliminaries for Egypt in June.

“We simply don’t have funds to take the team to Angola and it is a very sad situation as you could see the boys were looking forward to this campaign but now it’s all over for them," Namibia Football Association Secretary General Barry Rukoro said.

"The money we have now has to be used for the Brave Warriors for this weekend’s game against Guinea Bissau. And so the junior teams are feeling the pinch‚” .

“It is serious reputational damage for the Association as we are known to be ever present at almost all youth competitions and now this is happening and we have no choice but to pull the plug.

"We will still assess the situation with regard to the Under-20s going to Cosafa Cup [in Zambia next month].”

SA will hope to qualify for Egypt and then must finish in the top three on the continental stage to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

The fourth-place finisher plays in a play-off against a team from the Asian Football Confederation.

SA have qualified for the Games twice before‚ in Sydney in 2000 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.