SAFA, in the aim to avoid a bonus row with the Bafana Bafana squad ahead of next year’s AFCON, have agreed terms with the players and the contract is set to be signed before the start of the biennial event in Ivory Coast, president Danny Jordaan and CEO Lydia Monyepao told iDiski Times.
Bafana, according to various sources, held a meeting three hours before they played the friendly match against eSwatini at FNB Stadium, where they expressed their unhappiness of not being paid their monies for last month’s friendly matches.
As the meeting was held by the players along with the CEO Monyepao, it is alleged that is why Bafana gave a subdued performance in their goalless draw with eSwatini in front of a nearly-empty stadium on Friday – even though a senior Bafana player dismissed those claims to iDiski Times.
The publication was also informed that players almost held a strike not to travel to Ivory Coast to play the friendly match against the Elephants at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny in Abidjan on Tuesday.
Jordaan, speaking to this publication from Ivory Coast, said: “Write the facts that SAFA and the PSL have settled the matter.
“There is an agreement and the matter is settled and the players must now sign. This agreement covers the Africa Cup of Nations finals. But speak to the CEO of SAFA.
“Speak to her and ask those questions because I was not there when they were negotiating to confirm to you this or that is the position.
“But everything is settled and we have agreed and the players said so.”
This website called Monyepao and, after her phone initially rang unanswered, she returned the call and confirmed that negotiations started a while ago to avoid what happened recently with Banyana Banyana before the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in New Zealand and Australia.
“Why are people saying there was a standoff? There was no standoff with us and the players,” Monyepao told iDiski Times.
“This engagement started a long time ago. Every time when the players are in camp, we engage them. We are saying we need to conclude on bonuses so they don’t become a thorny issue every time they are in camp.
“That’s what we were discussing – discussing future bonuses on what they can expect and so forth. Last time it was not the entire team, I only spoke to a few players like your senior guys.”
When Monyepao was asked if it was true that Bafana gave a subdued performance against Eswatini on Friday because of the money issue, she said: “It has nothing to do with that.
“Our engagements started a long time ago in terms of bonuses. But we said we need to conclude on that [the bonuses of these camps and that of AFCON] so we don’t make mistakes we made before where we started to talk about the bonuses issue before the tournaments.”
During the previous Africa Cup of Nations in 2019 – the last time Bafana qualified where they lost out to Nigeria in the quarter-finals, coach Stuart Baxter, in his 60-page technical report, lambasted the association, stating “the build-up to the tournament was the most chaotic I have ever experienced”, adding that he was made a scapegoat on things he had no control over.
He also had a full go at SAFA president Jordaan and former Minister of Sports Nathi Mthethwa, who held a 40 minutes motivational speech to the players at the team’s hotel in Egypt, which he claimed was unnecessary.
The AFCON next year in Ivory Coast starts on 13 January until 11 February.
Story by Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).
