Johannesburg – The South African Football Association (Safa) are confident they’ll run a successful bidding campaign for the 2027 Women’s World Cup after announcing their bid committee yesterday.
Last year, Safa announced their intention to host the global event, thanks to the surge in women’s football that inspired Banyana Banyana’s triumph in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
And since then, they’ve ensured their bid gained momentum, including addressing both Fifa and the Caf – the custodians of both international and continental football.
The continental mother body has thrown their weight behind Safa as SA emerged as the only continental bidders among a host of internationals – both jointly and individually.
Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have submitted joint bids, alongside the United States and Mexico, while Brazil ran a solo campaign together with SA – taking the tally to four bids.
Safa are already hard at work in ensuring they become the first African nation to host the women’s event – having achieved the feat in the men’s edition in 2010 – as they announced their bid committee.
In a press conference after an NEC meeting at Safa House yesterday, the association’s newly-appointed chief executive Lydia Monyepao announced that lawyer Tumi Dlamini will be the chairperson of the bid committee.
“We know her involvement in sport. She was part of the 2010 World Cup (Organising Committee). She has a very good background in football and the legal space,” Monyepao explained.
“She worked with various governments in Africa as well. So, we are very confident that having her as the leader of the campaign for the bid will put a positive spin on our bid and lobbying for support.”
And in ensuring they run a tight-ship, Safa’s former acting chief executive Russel Paul will be the accounts manager, while seasoned administrator Natasha Tsichlas will also be a committee member.
Safa has also ensured they involve the rest of the continent in their bidding process, with Caf’s vice-president and exco member Kharizat Ibrahim and Isha Johansen part of the committee.
“The national executive committee is very excited to have secured the individuals that have been announced,” Safa’s vice-president Linda Zwane added.
“What important is that this bid is an African bid – that’s why you’ll see that we included people that are outside the country. But mainly, these are people of stature, integrity and can market the bid well.
“They are not strangers to the world. They have done all they could in their individual lives and we feel honoured to have them. So hopefully, we’ll get this World Cup because it is for the benefit of Africa.”
And having assembled their committee, including appointing judge Justice Sisi Khampepe as the independent compliance and ethical officer, Safa want to ensure they get to work as soon as possible.
In the upcoming World Cup next month, where Banyana will be making their second successive appearance, they’ll be part of the bid workshop and observer programme.
And from thereon, Safa's work will be cut out for them as they’ll have to submit a winning bid to Fifa on December 8, before the governing body visits all four nations for inspection in February next year.
IOL Sport