A dispute has threatened to derail South Africa's preparations for Tokyo 2020 ©Getty Images

South Africa's preparations for Tokyo 2020 appear to have hit another obstacle after the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) revealed it had not yet signed deals with 16 federations regarding selection criteria.

According to Independent Online, 16 of the 31 sports bodies in South Africa missed the deadline to reach an agreement with the SASCOC.

The deals are signed to stipulate qualification criteria for South Africa's athletes and teams at the Olympics, a prominent issue for SASCOC in recent years.

The SASCOC refused to send men's and women's hockey teams, as well as a women's rugby sevens side, to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after it ruled they had not qualified through the highest-level route available to them.

South Africa's men's and women's hockey teams did not compete at Rio 2016 because of strict criteria installed by SASCOC ©Getty Images
South Africa's men's and women's hockey teams did not compete at Rio 2016 because of strict criteria installed by SASCOC ©Getty Images

A similar row threatens to overshadow the build-up to next year's Games in Tokyo after Independent Online reported governing bodies in hockey, athletics, rugby, boxing and football, among others, were either disputing parts of the agreements or were deliberately slowing down the process.

"The deadline has already passed, and the staff has told the federations that the time is up, they are way past their dates," Debbie Alexander, a member of the SASCOC high-performance advisory committee, said.

"So it has been a bit of a challenge because we have done our utmost to be way ahead of the curve to do the general eligibility criteria, to do the [sport] specific criteria, to engage with them, and we are still waiting. 

"We have highlighted those to be tackled more stringently than others."