INLSA

Safa President Kirsten Nematandani.

SOUTH African Football Association (Safa) president Kirsten Nematandani is one of a number of the country’s officials helping with the running of the 2012 African Cup of Nations that comes to an end in Gabon and Libreville this weekend.

The experience is sure to prove invaluable for Safa who host next year’s event as a result of the African Football Confederation (Caf) switching the tournament to be played in odd years to avoid it clashing with the World Cup.

Nematandani spoke to Matshelane Mamabolo on wide-ranging issues, from lessons learnt from him being on the organising committee, through how Safa will deal with the poor attendance problems that have beset the current event as well as Fifa’s match-fixing investigation that implicates matches involving Bafana Bafana.

Matshelane Mamabolo: You’re at the Nations Cup as part of the organising committee, what lessons are you picking up ahead of next year’s tournament in South Africa?

Kirsten Nematandani: Being part of the organising committee has really opened my eyes as to the workings of Caf. It is easy for us to think that because we’ve hosted the World Cup, having the Nations Cup in South Africa will be easy. But that’s not so. There are many differences between Fifa and Caf. The African organisation has their own dynamics and being here has put me at a level where I understand their expectations of us for next year. We know they will send their own people to work with us, and the time here has helped me know how they function.

MM: There have been poor crowds at the current tournament. How will Safa avoid this situation next year?

KN: There are a number of reasons for the poor attendances here, chief among them being affordability of tickets. But we are aware we might have a crowd problem too, because people usually only attend matches where the home team are involved. Also, our people are more into European football. If you bring Manchester United to South Africa the stadium will be full; but if you bring Gambia to the Nations Cup, the venue might be empty. So we’re going to have to come up with strategies to attract crowds.

One of those might be to get the municipalities, districts and even schools around the host cities to adopt countries. We’re going to encourage the local cities to take ownership of the event and use it as a marketing tool for themselves, and they could get local businesses to help with issues such as tickets for school kids. Also, our stadiums are much bigger and in some instances we might have to find that we seal off some sections of the stadium so it does not look too empty. Where we’re fortunate is that we have better transport infrastructure than they do here and people will not be restricted to go to matches no matter where they’ll be.

MM: When will Safa decide on the host cities for the tournament?

KN: We have already received the bids from the cities interested in hosting and when we come back we should be able to get back to the preferred cities and give them the heads of agreement. While cities have expressed their interest, we also need to make them aware of what it is that we will expect of them and we want to be assured they will be able to provide what we need before we appoint them. But there has been very good interest and, as it is, both the North West and Mbombela are here at the tournament to observe and learn. We should communicate with the cities by the end of the month.

MM: In terms of infrastructure and facilities, we should be able to host a successful Nations Cup. Safa have said they want Bafana to at least reach the 2013 final. How will you ensure this happens?

KN: A lot of good things came out of the technical symposium and the key is for us to act on them. The biggest issue is that of player release. We need to have a clear understanding of what has to be done to give the national team support. Everyone must make a commitment and live up to it. The tournament provides us with a great opportunity to redeem ourselves and it is time our talk of having the best league on the continent is proven with a super performance at national team level. Only unity will make sure that our team succeed.

MM: Can we learn anything from Zambia’s impressive performance?

KN: The commitment Zambia have shown here has been amazing. They’ve proven that if you are willing to take the challenge and work together as a team, you can achieve a lot. They don’t have big-name stars, but they are a group of ordinary individuals prepared to get dirty for their country. They should be an inspiration for us because nearly half of their players play in our league and they are not among the best here. This should be a sign that if our boys are prepared to sweat it out, we can achieve big things.

MM: There’s a lot of noise being made regarding alleged match-fixing prior to the World Cup involving Bafana Bafana. What’s your take on this?

KN: Fifa are investigating match-fixing worldwide. They are not investigating Safa. And all we have to do is open the door for Fifa and co-operate with them. None of our people were aware of the problem when those matches under question took place. But the good thing is that when we started having doubts we acted by changing one of the referees for a match.

As Safa, we are against match-fixing and we put our referees through integrity tests, hence our officials are among the most respected. – The Star