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JOHANNESBURG — Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr says he was surprised at the lack of support from home fans for South Africa in their African Cup of Nations soccer clash over the weekend at the FNB Stadium.

The Super Eagles secured qualification for AFCON 2019 – to be hosted in Cameroon – thanks to a 1-1 draw against Stuart Baxter’s men. Rohr though, was shocked at the sight of a mostly empty 90 000-capacity FNB Stadium with just over 20 000 tickets sold with many Nigerian supporters coming out in their numbers.

A series of poor displays and also failing to qualify for major tournaments has undoubtedly taken its toll on local fans who seem to have lost patience with the men’s national team. “Our people told me we had a lot of fans already,” Rohr told KickOff. “A lot of Nigerians who are living in South Africa, so I was not surprised.

“But I was surprised that the stadium was so empty. You have such a big and important game for your country, and you only have – I don’t know how many, but not even half of the stadium was full. “I think there is a problem, I don’t understand why. If you have a match like this in Nigeria, you can have a stadium filled with 200 000 people.

“I think you’re missing a little bit of support. Even though the people who were at the game were very good, but they were not enough. You should have much more in the future.” — Sport24