OPINION: Ignorance, mistrust and a lack of organisation all led to Banyana’s stand-off

WHEN reflecting on the predicament which South African football had to deal with in the past few days, mistrust, ignorance and a lack of organisation were the major contributors.

Starting with mistrust, it was evident that the women’s team showed very little trust in the South African Football Association (SAFA). However, on investigating the matter, it appears the players may have been influenced by an outside source.

This is borne out by the sudden turn of events last Sunday morning when the team informed SAFA they would not play in the friendly later that day.

Hours earlier, the team was happy to play, but suddenly they listed a host of grievances which would prevent them from playing. The grievances included sponsors’ sneakers that were hurting, and the team was not issued with luggage items such as suitcases.

Last year, Banyana Banyana won the CAF Women’s African Cup of Nations and the players were paid as promised. Each player was paid R400,000, and SAFA would have been in good standing with the women’s team.

When Sunday’s stand-off emerged SAFA’s hierarchy was taken aback because there were good relations between the two parties throughout the week leading up to their departure to New Zealand.

🛬Team Banyana Banyana (first group) has landed safely in Wellington, New Zealand 🇳![CDATA[]]>🇿

🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦![CDATA[]]>💚![CDATA[]]>💛#LiveTheImpossible pic.twitter.com/lpZcTDwSSJ

— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) July 6, 2023

SAFA president Danny Jordaan has acknowledged that the stand-off should not have materialised, because contracts should have been concluded just after the final selections were announced.

SAFA also had to deal with the ignorance of the players who were not aware of FIFA’s decisions. One pertinent decision was that FIFA would pay players directly.

However, it became apparent that some Banyana players did not believe this because they insisted that SAFA note the FIFA payments in their contracts.

And then some players were concerned that FIFA did not request their banking details from them directly. SAFA supplied FIFA with their banking details and they wondered if the correct details were forwarded.

And then some players were also concerned about the money FIFA paid to SAFA. Each of the 32 participating federations was paid an amount which was to be used for travel costs to the World Cup. The balance of the money was to be used for development ad related projects.

What players also don’t realise is that all the money that SAFA receives must be accounted for when FIFA sends its auditors to check the federation's books. In recent years, SAFA has had a clean audit each time.

@Herman_Gibbs