Safa's failures caught up with Banyana at WAFCON

The South African Football Association (Safa) are as much to blame for Banyana Banyana’s shortfalls at the recently concluded Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament hosted in Morocco.

Heading into what was their first title defence since winning the tournament in 2022, Banyana had to contend with unpaid fees from their preparation matches. These payments were not made on time, forcing the players to consider — and in some cases follow through with — match boycotts in order to get the association’s attention.

It is puzzling that in 2025, an organisation tasked with leading South African football still allows its national teams to be affected by administrative shortcomings.

Banyana were knocked out in the semi-finals by Nigeria, who scored a late second-half goal to clinch the win (2-1) and a place in the final. The Super Falcons went on to lift the trophy, beating hosts Morocco 3–2 in a thrilling contest.

Veteran midfielder Jermaine Seoposenwe who was playing her last tournament for her country after a career that lasted more than a decade, publicly addressed the difficulties the team faced behind the scenes, including a disrupted travel schedule before a key group match against Ghana.

“They (fans) don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, how we are treated and suffering and how we constantly have to fight,” Seoposenwe said on Marawa Sports Worldwide.

“Before the Ghana game, the players were boycotting because we hadn’t come to an agreement with the association. We were supposed to leave at 5:30 but left at 6pm, we got there at seven and kick-off was at 8pm.

“Why is that an issue? Why are we doing these things? Obviously the country expects us to go out to the field, but they don’t know that we were literally sitting in the hotel room waiting for our association to come back to us.”

Banyana finished fourth after losing their third/fourth place playoff match against Ghana and they have since been putting out fires; some of which they didn't start,.

The association must take their share of blame with the disruption they caused leading up to the tournament.