SA Football Association (Safa) CEO Lydia Monyepao is caught between a rock and a hard place due to the dispute between the association and Banyana Banyana.
The senior national women’s team have been the country’s footballing darlings in recent years after winning their maiden Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) last year to qualify for their second successive Fifa Women’s World Cup this month.
Their preparations for the showpiece event took a turn for the worse on Sunday as they boycotted their send-off match, citing Botswana as unworthy opposition and accusing Safa of not meeting their contractual obligations.
Since then, Safa has been forced to find ways to come to an agreement with the players before they depart for Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday and Thursday, or they could run the risk of the players refusing to play in Australasia later this month.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, Sports Minister Zizi Kodwa and SA Football Players Union (Safpu) have promised to intervene and come up with solutions. Banyana have a friendly against Costa Rica on July 15 before their first group stage match against Sweden on July 23.
On Monday morning, Safa was yet to meet with all the relevant stakeholders to map a way forward. Instead, it announced 10 bets as Bafana Bafana’s official betting sponsor.
Speaking from Safa House in Johannesburg, Monyepao said Safa would do everything in its power to find an agreeable solution with Banyana, so that they did not have issues when they arrived in New Zealand.
“I think it’s quite important that we are all on the same page because the last thing that we want to do is to get to New Zealand and we are still not agreeing on certain things,” Monyepao said.
“We’ll engage on availability first and then we’ll engage with them hopefully (Monday) afternoon, (Monday) night or (Tuesday) morning (the) latest – so that (Tuesday) midday we are all on the same page.”
After being appointed as the first woman to hold the Safa CEO’s office in May, Monyepao was expected to be the mouthpiece for women’s football in the boardroom.
She represented Banyana and also served as the team manager.
However, Monyepao’s start as CEO of the association hasn’t been ideal as she’s caught between balancing the demands of her new role and helping women’s football to get the same recognition as the men’s game.
“I must understand where they (the team) are coming from,” Monyepao explained, “and I have to understand where the association is.
“I am wearing two caps.
“I think I have been fortunate to be the Banyana’s team manager, having seen the kind of negotiations that are required.
“But unfortunately, I am not a team manager right now ...
“I relied on the team management (led by Lauren Duncan) to inform me in terms of what was happening.
“We made decisions based on what was happening in the camp,” she said.
Cape Times