The South African Football Association (Safa) is in talks with the government and the Northern Cape provincial authorities to build a stadium that can host international matches.
This was part of the discussions at the Safa Congress this past weekend, where various football matters were on the agenda.
Prior to the 2010 Fifa World Cup, all nine provinces were catered for. This was except for the Northern Cape, where World Cup stadiums were being renovated.
All provinces have international stadiums, except N Cape
All provinces can host international matches. But the Northern Cape was left behind, without a stadium that meets Caf and Fifa standards.
“In the Northern Cape, we have two professional clubs, Hungry Lions and Uppington City, after they were promoted to the NFD. Parallel to that, we have engaged the Northern Cape about the building of a stadium. … Because they do not have a stadium with international standards,” said Safa president Danny Jordaan.
“So, it means that we will not be able to play international matches [there] unless we address those issues. We will have further meetings with the government. This to emphasise the fact that it is important to have a Caf and Fifa-compliant stadium. …[These will be able to] to host international matches. HollywoodBets will look into that and strengthen those teams,” Jordaan added.
Growth of Women’s Super League
The former 2010 World Cup Organising committee CEO was also enthused about the growth of the women’s HollywoodBets Super League.
“The HollywoodBets Super League has progressed, and we want to strengthen it. I had a meeting with Zizi Kodwa, the minister of sports. We discussed what steps can be taken to accelerate the road to professionalisation of this league.
Some challenges
“There are major obstacles in that regard, the main one being the broadcast revenue. On the men’s side, we have the ABC Motsepe League. [It is] the country’s second division, which is doing very well. One of the things the ABC Motsepe League has done was to help transform SA professional football.
“When we started, professional football was dominated by major cities like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. And other cities did not have access to a professional league,” he explained further.
