JOHANNESBURG – Safa president Danny Jordaan is currently in Muscat, Oman, where a Fifa Summit is taking place to discuss a range of issues pertaining to football.
The two-day summit in Muscat will discuss among other issues, the idea of replacing the Under-17 and Under-20 competitions with a single youth tournament which will either comprise the Under-18 or Under-19 age group.
The summit will brainstorm the idea of then increasing the number of participating countries from the current 24 by doubling the number to 48 teams for men’s tournament.
The summit will also touch on increasing the women’s participating teams from the current 16 to 24 teams, as well as forming a Fifa Women’s World league comprising 16 leading countries in the world with two coming from Africa.
Currently, Nigeria and Ghana lead the women rankings on the continent; and Banyana Banyana in third, will have to beat the two West Africans to be part of the elite squad. This league is scheduled to begin in 2020.
“This is why it is imperative to urgently launch our National Women’s League. This will galvanise the competition among our girls to compete with the best in the world,” said Jordaan.
The Safa president said another hot topic which should take centre stage at the summit was the discussion of who is eligible to represent one’s country at national level.
“The summit is going to touch on amending regulations around eligibility of players to feature for their national teams.
The summit will also look on what need to be reviewed within the transfer system in order to make it more transparent, increase accountability, reward clubs that trained the players and above all improve competitive balance,” said Jordaan.
The Safa president is being accompanied to the summit by CEO Dennis Mumble.
All federations around the globe are expected to congregate in this ancient Middle East country for this watershed summit.