SA Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan is accused of pushing one of the association’s marquee national teams into the lion’s den.
Banyana Banyana, the reigning African champions, have been instructed by their boss to play in the Turkish Women’s Cup though even the hosts have pulled out following the deadly earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and neighbouring Syria early this week.
It was reported on Saturday that more than 21,000 people have died in Turkey while Syria has recorded over 4,000 deaths from Monday’s earthquake. Alanya, where the tournament was set to be played, is 400km from the areas affected by the earthquake.
Sunday Times has learnt that behind Jordaan’s insistence on Banyana playing is a R16m windfall Safa received from world governing body Fifa.
The association has committed to use the money to prepare Banyana for the Women’s Fifa World Cup which will be played in July this year in New Zealand and Australia where Desiree Ellis’s team will face Sweden, Argentina and Italy.
Questions were sent to Jordaan on the allegations and the trip but they were unanswered at the time of publishing. Safa, however, sent out a statement yesterday, saying no final decision has been taken on sending Banyana to Turkey.
"While the tournament is going ahead, the safety of our players and officials is very important to us. We have consulted with the organisers and had discussions with Zambia, our neighbours, as one of the participants," part of the statement read.
The tournament in Alanya is scheduled to be played from 15-23 February and will involve SA, Zambia and eight other nations — Bulgaria, Estonia, Kosovo, Hong Kong, Jordan, North Macedonia, Slovenia and Uzbekistan.
The Sunday Times has learnt from its sources that Banyana’s players and technical team are “very reluctant to go”. Banyana were supposed to leave the country today, but are likely to depart only on Wednesday — if they go.
Early in the week, Safa COO Lydia Monyepao said the association was seeking advice from the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco) on whether it should go ahead with the trip to Turkey.
Monyepao was, however, not available later in the week to comment on how talks with Dirco went. Dirco head of diplomacy Clayson Monyela said yesterday: “As far as we’re concerned, we’ve not been contacted by Safa for advice on this trip.”
Nozipho Mbatha, senior manager (group brand and sponsorship) at Sasol, refused to confirm whether they’ve indeed spoken to Safa, expressing their reservations and action they may take if Banyana are forced to travel to Turkey.
“For us as a sponsor, I don’t think it will be appropriate to comment on a match decision because those are managed by the association. We don’t have a say and it’s not our place to comment on merits of such decisions which we're never part of," said Mbatha.
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