Copyright issues may force the South African soccer federation (SAFA) to drop its national team's Bafana Bafana nickname, which means “the boys, the boys” in Zulu.

A businessman acquired the rights to the name in 1994 and on Tuesday the chairman of the influential parliamentary committee on sport said the SAFA, which uses the nickname in much of its official literature, should change the nickname if the copyright issue isn't resolved.

"I want to avoid saying we are very angry about it,” SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani. “We are worried about it. We are concerned.”

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed in 2002 a SAFA motion that it had rights over Bafana Bafana. Nematandani said the public could be asked to choose a new nickname.