{"id":32889,"date":"2026-04-24T08:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32889"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:43:09","slug":"sa-to-send-16-fans-to-2026-world-cup-through-open-competition","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-to-send-16-fans-to-2026-world-cup-through-open-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"SA to send 16 fans to 2026 World Cup through open competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie says 16 football fans will get a fully sponsored trip to the FIFA World Cup 2026 to support Bafana Bafana.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The initiative, backed by sponsors, will select one supporter from each Premier Soccer League club through an open competition, a shift away from the controversial \u201csuper-fan\u201d system.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>McKenzie says flights, accommodation, transport and daily allowances will be covered, with the department assisting with visas and match tickets.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The move follows a public exchange between McKenzie and well-known supporter Mama Joy, who has previously benefited from similar trips.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12986,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-32889","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie says 16 football fans will get a fully sponsored trip to the FIFA World Cup 2026","published_date":"2026-04-24 08:14:12","news_description":"Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie says 16 football fans will get a fully sponsored trip to the FIFA World Cup 2026","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32890,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32889\/revisions\/32890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}