The South African Football Association (Safa) has admitted that they are struggling financially and that is one of the reasons they were not able to put something on the table for Banyana Banyana ahead of the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
A well-placed insider revealed that if the association had to fork out R6-million for Banyana bonuses, it would have seriously gobbled Safa’s coffers and crippled them financially. So, the national association needed to go find donors for the girls, who had embarked on a tools-down in their send-off match against Botswana at the Tsakane Stadium in Ekurhuleni last Sunday.
Safa had thought they had dodged the bullet when Fifa disclosed that they would pay each player $30 000 (R560 000) for participating in the tournament – but the Banyana players insisted that Safa too had to put something on the table.
The Motsepe Foundation later donated R6-million, which equates to R230 000 for each player.
“The association relies on funding from sponsors, or government or other funders, so whatever we pay, it is money that we get from those sources. That’s why we had to appeal to other sources to get funding – because the association does not have its own money. It was going to be difficult to raise R6-million for Banyana,” said Safa chief financial officer Gronie Hluyo on Friday.
When asked how they were going to handle the volatile situation if the Motsepe Foundation had not come on board, Hluyo said: “We were going to look for other funders. Our
model is to look for long-term partnership and not short term, where you just sponsor for the world cup.
“We are in the market looking for Banyana secondary sponsor. Sasol are the main sponsor but we want to have other sponsors.
“What created confusion is the way Fifa allocated the money, because they said we are putting aside an allocation for the players and for the federation and it was very clear to us. We then met with the players and told them they were getting Fifa allocation according to how Fifa did it and Safa will get what is allocated to federations.
“But then the players wanted an additional money from Safa,” he added.
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