South Africa to face Madagascar as Zambia postpone friendly

South Africa will host Madagascar on Saturday in a hastily arranged friendly after Zambia pulled out of their planned meeting on the weekend.

Chipolopolo were due to host South Africa in Lusaka on Saturday but the Football Association of Zambia (Faz) president Andrew Kamanga told South African media that it could not guarantee the safety of the visiting team.

The decision comes after days of looting and violence in the South African cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria targeting foreigners in which five people have died.

The Zambian decision has been widely lauded in the wake of outrage and anger elsewhere in Africa at the xenophobic attacks — not the first time it has happened in South Africa.

A Faz statement said that the "decision was arrived at in consultation with the South African Football Association (Safa).

"Our game with South Africa has been pushed to the next Fifa window (between 7 and 15 October)."

Faz General Secretary Adrian Kashala added that Zambia will instead play Namibia on 9 September in Windhoek.

However the proposed match against Namibia, however, would seem unrealistic as Namibia meet Eritrea in Windhoek on Tuesday in a World Cup qualifier.