Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has broken his silence about the sad reality the players face when their match fees are late or not paid by the national association, especially when the team is performing at the highest level.
Recently, Bafana qualified for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations tournament without losing a single match. They achieved the feat with two matches in hand and topped Group K. SA are now touted among favourites to win the tournament, this after they sent a strong warning when they grabbed a bronze medal in last year’s edition of the competition in Ivory Coast.
“We had the problem last year, it is possible that some times you have cash flow problems, and that happens. The CEO [Lydia Monyepao] called me in December and said, ‘coach, we will pay you but it will be a week later’.
“For me that’s not a big problem. I know there will be big complaints from the people that players are not paid – it’s not a happy feeling but money is always coming andgoing out.
“I see the minister of sports [Gayton McKenzie] making big speeches and I hope he is doing something about it. In SA, it is very difficult because many federations have a shortage of money. In some countries in Africa, it is the state that funds the federations.
“When I was coaching the Cameroon national team, the minister of sports was my boss – and not the president of the federation. If we needed funds to travel somewhere, I went to the minister and he would then go to his colleague, the minister of finance, and he would approve [funds]. It is very difficult [not getting paid] but I think everyone has been paid now,” added the Belgium-born 2017 Afcon winner.
Broos explained that he was hoping sponsors would come on board because of Bafana’s recent impressive performances.
“It is not up to me but I hope they [federation] use Bafana’s good results to get sponsors – there are some sponsors’ contracts that are still running, and maybe they can continue. I think we have to wait until the World Cup qualifiers finish, and maybe they can start to negotiate sponsors for the next Afcon and the next World Cup.”
