From experience Safa officials know that when their national teams play in CAF or Fifa tournaments, their 'silly season' kicks in, and players demand more money.
True to form, with the national women's team set to fly out to New Zealand for the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup later this month, there was an outcry for more money. While this was not unusual, it was a unique situation because never has a team, regardless of gender, been assured of a R570 000 windfall just for playing in the tournament.
But South Africa's national women's football team Banyana Banyana, with the South African Football Players Union (Safpu) in tow, demanded more money or else they would not play in a warm-up fixture.
It must be said they were unhappy about facets of the warm-up fixture for sound reasons.
However, had Safpu been worth their salt, they would have dealt with these issues as soon as the team assembled for camp.
What made Banyana bitterly unhappy, despite their windfall, was that Safa was not going to swell their purse even bigger by offering a bonus of some sort.
Banyana were also unhappy that each of their personal contracts did not reflect the payments they would receive from Fifa. They demanded that the contracts be changed so that they reflect the Fifa payment.
The reason for this was that players feared that Fifa would pay the fees into a Safa account and then they would battle to recover it.
This is where Safpu failed the players because they should have explained that Fifa made a statement saying what players will receive and that payments will be paid directly into players' personal accounts.
Safpu's role in the stand-off with Safa smacks of opportunism and there are several instances where they failed to give the players timely advice during this saga. It has also come to light that hardly any of the players are members of Safpu.
For the past few years, Safpu has failed to assist local players when disputes arose, particularly with PSL clubs.
Several players have had to turn directly to Fifa for help, and consequently, a few PSL clubs have been sanctioned.
These opportunist Safpu officials would never be entertained by PSL clubs and they would be treated with contempt.
No wonder Safa was forced to release an incendiary statement in which they said they were “shocked by Safpu's false claims”.
Perhaps it will be good for Banyana to know that world-class teams like England and Germany, who are ranked in the top four of the world rankings, will not receive top-up bonuses from their federations.
The German Football Federation (DFB) and the FA decided that it will not pay any prize money to their teams beyond the premiums offered by Fifa.
@Herman_Gibbs
IOL Sport