Cape Town - The South African Football Association (Safa) has grown tired of babysitting the Southern Africa regional power, the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa).
In the past, Cosafa has run regional tournaments in South Africa, without obtaining prior permission. There was also no bidding process in place for Cosafa tournaments, which proved costly for the SA provinces.
According to the Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe, the host cities in South Africa often turned to local government for help. As a result, often there was nothing left financially for the benefit of local football.
“We are saying, let us not be burdened with tournaments which we have not bid for because, at some point, they go against our own priorities as the governing body in the country," said Motlanthe."
Against this background, Safa's National Executive Committee (NEC) decided that South Africa will no longer host regional events until further notice. This was one of the key decisions taken at the Safa's two-day indaba at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park.
The NEC will tell Cosafa that they should give other countries a chance to host events. There are 14 Southern African nations under the Cosafa umbrella.
“We don’t want to be portrayed as a greedy country, which wants everything," said Motlanthe.
"We believe that there is capacity within the region to host. Botswana and Namibia are bidding to host the Afcon, so there is no way they cannot be able to host a tournament of Cosafa’s magnitude.
"This was a major decision which was taken by this NEC.”
No longer had Motlanthe spoken these words when the news broke that Namibia withdrew from a joint agreement with Botswana to bid for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations hosting rights.
The NEC also concluded that Cosafa was in breach of its statutes by not staging bidding processes to host events. The host of Cosafa tournaments in South Africa has had an adverse on SAFA’s own programmes in the provinces.
“We further elaborated on the relationship with Cosafa and advise that the NEC is of the view that they are in breach of their own statutes,” said Motlanthe.
“We have not been bidding for these Cosafa tournaments, but they’ve been happening here in South Africa.”
Motlanthe also revealed that the NEC has mandated him and Safa president Danny Jordaan to step up South Africa’s interest in hosting the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup.
“The NEC has requested that we strengthen South Africa’s bid to host the Fifa Women’s World Cup and also look for the person who will be the face of the bid,” said Motlanthe.
“This mandate has been given to me and the President to identify the face of the bid. It must be a woman because we are talking about the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
"We will sit down and profile what kind of a person we want to lead to the bid. We are looking at having women play a major role in the bid. I think those were the main issues that were discussed today.”
South Africa’s interest in hosting the tournament received a boost after the government expressed its support for Safa’s plans a few months ago.
Other speakers at the workshop included Jordaan, Walter Steenbok (Safa technical director), David Fani (Fifa development officer), Safa vice-presidents Linda Zwane and Bennett Bailey, as well as, well-travelled coach Boebie Solomons who made presentations on provincial academies.
On Sunday, Safa will convene the association’s ordinary congress.
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