SAFA plots path for national teams after All-Night NEC Meeting
Image: Itumeleng English/Independent Newspapers
With a packed international calendar looming, the South African Football Association (SAFA) spent nearly 15 hours in a marathon National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting this past weekend to map out preparations for the country's various national teams.
Banyana Banyana are set to compete at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in July, while the SA U17 and U20 men's teams are preparing for their respective FIFA World Cups in Qatar and Chile later this year.
Bafana Bafana, meanwhile, have four crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers lined up between September and October.
SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan confirmed that the NEC meeting, held at SAFA House in Johannesburg on Friday, started at 2pm and only concluded at 5am on Saturday morning.
'We had several matters to deal with. You know, Banyana Banyana is going to Morocco. The U17s are going to Qatar in November, and the U20s are heading to Chile in September. Then we also have Bafana's World Cup qualifiers,' said Jordaan.
The marathon session also addressed various administrative matters, but not all items on the agenda were concluded. The NEC has been adjourned to reconvene next week ahead of the upcoming SAFA Congress.
'We are going to appoint new auditors, and we have the Finance and Technical Committee reports to be presented. These are Committee reports that we've left for next week,' Jordaan added.
Among the matters deferred to the next sitting are updates from the Competitions and Membership Affairs Committees, as well as appointments to the Technical Committee—an area Jordaan stressed is key to ensuring national teams are adequately prepared.
'There are too many issues that we had to deal with. But, as you could see, all the people remained until the end of the meeting. We have to make sure everything is okay with our teams, and that's where the focus is,' he said.
Jordaan, who will travel to the United States this weekend for engagements, also hopes to catch a few matches at the FIFA Club World Cup, where South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns are competing.
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