Safpu gives details on Motsepe rescue plan that sent Banyana off for World Cup

Banyana Banyana will go to the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup happy and hopefully focused on delivering results after their contractual impasse with the South African Football Association (Safa) was ended by the intervention of the Motsepe Foundation.

The team were departing OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday for the tournament in New Zealand and Australia from July 20 to August 20.

Financial assistance for cash-strapped Safa came from the Motsepe Foundation and Ithuba to rescue the crisis.

SA Football Players Union (Safpu) president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe confirmed at a press conference called by Safa in Sandton on Wednesday, that, thanks to the foundation’s backing, the African champions will receive R230,000 added to the $30,000 (R562,000) group stage appearance money from Fifa. Fifa’s payment increases for teams who progress past the first round.

All the team’s backroom staff, consisting of more than 10 members, will get R150,000.

These figures were disclosed by Gaoshubelwe before Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao called an additional press conference to announce Ithuba had added R2m to the undisclosed amount from the Motsepe Foundation.

“What we have agreed is that at least by the time the ladies leave [in two groups on Wednesday and Thursday] we have a contract,” Gaoshubelwe said.

“We have an annexure that will be signed by the players. Part of the annexure will say part of the money that will be received from Fifa includes the issues of travel, accommodation and so on.

“But over and above that there’s an additional income that will come from the association [via the Motsepe backing], which is R230,000 for the players and R150,000 for the staff. There’s been a commitment from the president of Safa [Danny Jordaan].”

The Safpu president said the negotiations were not easy and lasted throughout Tuesday night until the early hours of Wednesday.

“The negotiations were tough, but we had to go through them. We have not yet signed the documents, but we have agreed [in principle] to say these are the things and that’s why we [Banyana] are going.

“We finished talks in the early hours of this [Wednesday] morning, dealing with some of these issues. When we leave here [the Hilton Hotel in Sandton] we should have signed these contracts.”

Gaoshubelwe confirmed that world 54th-ranked Banyana will receive more appearance money from Fifa if they progress past a tough group G that includes third-ranked Sweden, 16th-ranked Italy and 28th-ranked Argentina.

“If they go to the last 16 they get $60,000 (R1.128m), to last-8 $90,000 (R1.692m) and if they win it they’ll come home with $270,000 (R5.076m), for the champions.”

Monyepao did not clarify how the R2m added by Ithuba will be used but said Safa will further engage the players on it. 

The impasse over the finances saw Banyana missing their send-off match at the Tsakane Stadium on Sunday against Botswana. A hastily compiled makeshift side lost the match 5-0. 

Jordaan admitted negotiations regarding Banyana’s contracts started too late and Safa should find ways to avoid similar situations in future.

“We couldn’t start negotiating the contracts with the players before the final squad was announced,” he said.

Banyana open their World Cup campaign against Sweden at Wellington Regional Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand on July 23, before meeting Argentina (July 28) and Italy (August 2) in other group matches, also in Wellington.

The African champions are appearing at the World Cup for the second time after making their debut in France in 2019, where they failed to go past the first round.

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