Revealed: How Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos financial demands and FTF political chaos stopped him becoming Tunisia coach after South Africa's 3rd place Afcon finish

Bafana Bafana came into the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations held in Ivory Coast early in the year as underdogs.

However, they went on to put up a decent show which won them a bronze medal in the 3rd place play-off, as opposed to more fancied teams like Tunisia, Ghana and Algeria who all exited at the group stage.

Coach Jalel Kadri resigned after the Tunisian's embarrassing exit from Afcon which was eventually won by the hosts Ivory Coast.

South Africa were one of the teams that made a statement; they were underrated but went on to finish in the podium positions.

The Carthage Eagles identified Hugo Broos as their potential new coach, but the tactician - who was unhappy with the working environment in Mzansi, denied the rumours.

The Tunisia FA was then under a Caretaker Committee which made things a bit complicated since there was no definite date for elections.

And now, as revealed by the then chairman of the Fifa Normalisation Committee in Tunisia, Chedli Rahmani, Broos was closer to being the new Tunisia boss than we thought.

"Hugo Broos, we wanted him. The problem is that he wanted to come with his entire staff and it will cost us 2.9 million euros per year. We don’t have that budget," he told Radio Mosaqiue.

After Safa and Broos solved their problems, the Belgian helped Bafana qualify for the 2025 Afcon to be held in Morocco.

His next target will be the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers scheduled to resume in March. The last time South Africa played in the World Cup was way back in 2010 when they qualified automatically as hosts of the tournament.