SAFA has called out the South African Players Football Union (Safpu) for claiming that it has a co-operative agreement with the association.
After Banyana Banyana’s decision to boycott their World Cup send-off match against Botswana, citing various reasons, including contractual obligations, Safpu pledged their support for the team’s decision.
So much so that it reported that they drove the team to Tsakane Stadium for the match where they were mere spectators as a makeshift side was hammered 5-0.
In the aftermath discussion which was attended by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi and SAFA officials, including president Danny Jordaan, to hear the team's grievances, Safpu officials, including president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe, were also present.
And since that round table chat, Safpu has told the media, including IOL Sport, that they’ve sent communication to both Safa and the minister of sport’s office as the mouthpiece of the players.
And while the minister of Sport Zizi Kodwa wrote to the public that they’ll meet with Sapfu on Tuesday to map a way forward, SAFA, on the other hand, have refuted any ties with Sapfu.
“SAFA has noted the concerning and misleading utterances in the public domain attributed to Safpu claiming that it has a co-operative agreement with the association,” the statement wrote.
“This statement is false, distasteful, and misleading as no such agreement is in place. It is an insult to the intellect of the nation.
“SAFA challenges Safpu to produce a copy of such an agreement. As a trade union, they should know that there are particular processes that have to be followed.
“1) They must prove their membership. We challenge them to produce a list of members who are women footballers.
“2) They must produce the membership numbers and any payments made to the union by these members.
“3) We further remind them that we have more than 400 000 women footballers. How many of them are members of this union? “
“This union has continued to make bogus claims at will and we feel it is time to call them out. This is an insult to the intelligence of our nation. We challenge him on these three things,” they added.
SAFA also said in they’ve always had the best interest for women’s football – not Safpu.
“These players have been nurtured and developed through Safa structures. We have produced these teams through our development and investment, and we are proud of their achievements,” they said.
“This union sprung into action two weeks ago after Fifa announced the bonus payments to all the women footballers who will participate in the Fifa Women’s World Cup.”
In a letter attached by the mother body to their statement, Fifa states that an amount of $1 560 000 (R29 172 000) should be allocated to the teams for playing in the World Cup group stage.
And therefore, this meant that each of the 23 players participating in the group stage should pocket $30 000 (R565 000) - with no extra bonuses from the governing body.
But with that said, Safa are mum on whether they'll allocate the prescribed funds by Fifa to the players - hence they want something in writing before jetting off to New Zealand.
“SAFA must further inform the nation that Fifa’s funding is allocated to specific projects as you can see in this attached letter,” they said.
“Fifa operates on the basis that for any funding SAFA must sign what is called a contract of agreed objectives. The money is allocated in terms of the agreed objectives.
“And as pointed out in the letter, Fifa then comes and subjects the payments to their audit processes. So, SAFA cannot just use money allocated for one project to fund or use for a different purpose.”
In their parting shot, SAFA stated that Safpu has “no affiliation to SAFA, Caf and Fifa” and “it was time that the association tells the public the truth”.
@MihlaliBaleka