Fran Hilton-Smith, who has a 40-year legacy in South African football, says the chaos that surrounded Banyana Banyana ahead of their departure for the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australasia later this month could have been avoided with better communication.
After an impasse over several contractual and other issues between the Banyana players and South African Football Association (Safa), which saw the side not play their farewell fixture against Botswana, the Patrice Motsepe Foundation came to the team’s rescue at the 11th hour with the funds that settled the pay dispute. Hilton-Smith stresses that post-World Cup, there are still key issues Safa must address.
“It’s very sad for everybody concerned and I think the embarrassing situation could have been avoided with better communication and more hands-on staff from the office,” Hilton-Smith told TimesLIVE Premium from her base in Johannesburg, where she busies herself with weekly administrative workshops on Zoom for roughly 40 women from the Cosafa (Southern African football’s ruling body) regions.
“To offer an analogy, if you put a pressure cooker on the stove and it is left unattended, one day it’s going to explode and that is what has happened.”
Hilton-Smith, who was asked to take retirement from Safa when she served as women’s technical director five years ago, believes women’s football is still not taken seriously in South Africa despite Banyana winning the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title. During her tenure, she worked mostly alone and described it as a “lonely” and “difficult” existence without even the help of a secretary.
Head coach Desiree Ellis and team manager Lauren Duncan are also swimming against the proverbial tide, with women’s football not having a head of department in the office, that Hilton-Smith asserts is the missing link between the Banyana technical team and Safa executive.
“It’s all very well to say Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana get paid the same, but it’s not really about the money, it’s about the overall treatment of the team,” the 70-year-old said.
“Being respected was something I fought for endlessly and not much has changed. For many years, the three national women’s teams shared boots and tekkies. Could you imagine if the Bafana Bafana players ever had to do that?”
While the Banyana players will receive an additional payment of R230,000 each from the Motsepe Foundation, along with Fifa’s appearance fee of R570,000 for the group stage, Hilton-Smith was pleased that the support staff will also be paid R150,000 each.
“The consideration and welfare of the staff is also important because they are the backbone of the team. When it comes to money they also need to be considered. Normally the staff aren’t included, but it’s important to promote team unity.”
Hilton-Smith, whose book A Song for Banyana paints a vivid portrayal of her trials and tribulations in the game, says NEC member Monde Montshiwa should be held accountable for his derisory comments made during last week’s saga over the Banyana controversy. Along with his verbal attack on Doctor Khumalo, whom he called “useless” and told to “shut up”, he said of Banyana: “Safa must select a new team — these ones must go home.”
Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao has condemned those inflammatory comments, but they are no less damaging. Hilton-Smith says they speak to how some within the organisation sadly feel about women’s football.
“If that portrays the true Safa NEC [national executive committee] it’s disturbing,” Hilton-Smith said. “It’s not good for the image of women’s football and South Africa is looking to bid for the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup. By now everybody has heard about this saga around the world.”
All this off-the-field stuff has to be put behind them and I certainly hope that Desiree and the technical staff can get the team to concentrate on the World Cup.
— Fran Hilton-Smith
“For football and not just women’s football, it’s not a great thing to have happened and an embarrassment. To those in suits at Safa my message is: communication and the structuring of administration at the office is crucial when it comes to women’s football.”
Banyana, ranked 54th in the world, have now settled in New Zealand and will need to put the off-field issues to one side as they navigate an extremely difficult group at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Third-ranked Sweden, Italy (16th) and Argentina (28th) accompany South Africa in what some have described as the group of death.
Hilton-Smith acknowledges the off-field turmoil has been mentally taxing and takes the focus away from the World Cup. As the players and support staff sat with Safa president Danny Jordaan before the Motsepe announcement, the tension was tangible.
“All this off-the-field stuff has to be put behind them, and I certainly hope Desiree and the technical staff can get the team to concentrate on the World Cup,” said Hilton-Smith. “We hope this time there’s some luck on our side. For me, it’s not mission impossible for Banyana — anything is possible. I’m confident that if the ball rolls in our favour for a change, we can do well in this tournament and look to progress.”
Banyana were winless in their maiden World Cup in France four years ago and suffered heavy defeats by Germany and Spain. However, Hilton-Smith is optimistic the team can perform well in Australasia and the challenges can galvanise the side.
“There is no reason we can’t get to the next round. We’ve got the players — 13 of the girls come from the [Safa women’s programme at the University of Pretoria’s] high-performance centre, which I started 22 years ago — and now there are so many SA women playing professionally who have the experience in Europe and that stands us in good stead.”
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