The South African Football Association (SAFA) CEO Lydia Monyepao says she is hopeful the highly publicised row with Banyana Banyana will be resolved by midday on Tuesday.
It’s been confirmed the standoff was due to the ‘displeasure’ of having to play Botswana, which SAFA saw as a team of calibre, having knocked South Africa out of the 2020 Olympic qualifiers and a tough time at WAFCON, having only beaten them 1-0 with a full strength side with Coach Desiree Ellis.
The other issue was SAFA seeking a ‘send-off match’ and found it tough to secure a side to come to South Africa with the reported budget restrictions – they were said to have received negative responses for a game outside the FIFA International break.
With regards to Tsakane Stadium, she stated ‘it was the only venue available’ as many fields were under maintenance like Orlando Stadium, FNB and Tuks Stadium, while Dobsonville Stadium was already booked for the day.
Added to that, Tsakane has the backup generators needed in order to broadcast the game to the public, in reservation for load shedding on the day.
“We are going to engage further as Premier Phanyza Lesufi indicated, we had a round table where we engaged each other, so we are going to continue the discussions this afternoon or depending on availability so we can iron out any outstanding issues before the team departs on Wednesday and Thursday for the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” she said at SAFA House on Monday morning.
“I think it’s important that we’re all on the same page because the last thing we want is to get to New Zealand and we’re still not agreeing on certain things, there are still amendments brought forward as far as the contract is concerned.
“So we’re engaging internally so we can see what can we agree and what we can’t agree to and then after that we will engage them, having consulted the senior leaders inside, including our renunciations committee so we can take back the proposed changes back to them.
“But the conversations are open, we’ve not started again since yesterday, and we have not engaged since yesterday but we’re looking to do so further, we just wanted to give the 10Bet South Africa the attention they deserve, because the spotlight should be on them and Bafana Bafana – we will address it after we engage in further talks with the team.”
When pressed for a timeline of resolving the issues raised by the Banyana squad, she stated they are aiming to have everything in order by tomorrow before their trip to Australasia.
