29 September 2022 – South Africa’s Under-23 coach David Notoane has described the squad’s recent camp, which ran from 19-26 September at the SAFA National Technical Centre (Fun Valley), as a worthwhile exercise as the squad embarks on the journey to Paris Olympics in 2024.

The U23s will be involved in the Morocco 2023 AFCON qualifiers next month when they take on winners of Mauritania and Togo to decide who qualifies for the finals in Morocco next year. Next year’s U23 AFCON tournament will decide the African countries that will take part in the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Notoane who led the U23 to the Tokyo Olympics last year said he was happy with how the next Olympics’ journey has started.

‘’I wanted to see where tactically the boys are and also wanted to grow the pool taking into consideration the qualifiers will take place outside the FIFA week and might not get the players we want.

‘’Therefore, this camp was good in a number of areas, to have cohesion ahead of the qualifiers and to assess the players we might actually use,’’ said Notoane.

South Africa had a bye in the opening round and will face either Mauritania or Togo in the second round with the first leg pencilled on the week of 21-23 October while the second leg will be played on the week of 28-30 October.

During the week-long training camp, Notoane was assisted by Kwanele Kopo and goalkeeper coach Lucky Shiburi.