Not unlike many other national women’s football teams around the world, South Africa's Banyana Banyana are also demanding more money for playing in the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The women’s World Cup teams of Canada, England, Jamaica, Spain and Nigeria have all demanded additional purses from their national federations.
It has become a habit, all over the world, that whenever national teams play, there have been financial demands as players seek greater pay packages.
This time, however, in a unique situation, the guardians of the Women’s World Cup, FIFA, have decided to play the players handsomely and directly into their (personal) accounts. FIFA decided to pay each player a staggering R570 000 in every one of the 32 squads after the first round - whether the player played or not.
However, despite this windfall, players from several countries want their federations to add to FIFA’s fee.
At the last Women’s World Cup, South African players were paid R20 000. Now SA players are demanding almost 28 times that amount.
England and Germany have settled their cases. After a meeting, the English FA decided that the FIFA purse was sufficient for their players.
The German Football Federation (DFB) decided that it will not pay any prize money to the women's team beyond the premiums offered by FIFA.
England and Germany are ranked in the top four of the world rankings and have every chance of reaching the semi-finals. In that case, every player will receive more than R3m.
Apart from Banyana’s financial concerns, the team failed to address other issues in good time, and this caused wholesale embarrassment to themselves and SAFA over the weekend.
For example, on Saturday evening, Banyana’s team management presented SAFA with the names of the squad to play Botswana on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday morning, Banyana’s team management informed SAFA the team will not be playing because of their concerns.
Some of these concerns were legitimate, others not. The choice of opponents (Botswana), and the choice of playing venue were legitimate, but these details were made known a week ago.
Banyana’s technical staff should have been consulted beforehand, and if not, Banyana should have voiced their objections then.
Another matter Banyana was insisting on was that the payment from FIFA had to be noted in their contracts. Independent Media subsequently learnt that players were unaware that FIFA would be paying the money directly into their accounts.
Players feared that if their money ended up in SAFA’s account they would battle to recover it.
@Herman_Gibbs
IOL Sport