Michael Pedro
| Bafana failed to qualify for the last edition in 2022 which was won by Senegal and speaking to Robert Marawa on #MSW, Jordaan said that the current crop of players is good enough to do so.
South Africa Football Association president, Dr Danny Jordaan says that it is in coach Hugo Broos’ mandate to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2024.
Jordaan joined Robert Marawa in-studio to discuss the state of South African football, in a wide ranging interview.
Bafana failed to qualify for the most recent edition in 2022.
Speaking to Robert Marawa on #MSW, Jordaan said that the current group of players is good enough to do so.
We have to be realistic with Bafana in that we did not achieve the goals we had hoped for. The best performance was 2019 when we made the quarterfinals of AFCON and that team peaked there.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
In the world cup qualifiers, we were top of the group before that game against Ghana. Broos has brought many young players in and it is a team that can go to AFCON and to the next stage of world cup qualifying. He must qualify for Afcon, that’s in his mandate.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
Jordaan added that one of the reasons for the team’s decline is the number of teams at the top level in the PSL.
We have only 16 teams in the PSL now so the player pool to pick from is a lot smaller. Within that, we have a six five split of local and international players in any given starting eleven. So when you look back at 1996, we had over 200 players to choose from for the national team, now we have just shy of 100.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
Fans also only focus on one team and that’s Bafana. In all the other teams we have qualified for world cups and Afcon’s but people don’t talk about that.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
A large portion of the in-studio interview also focused on women’s football.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is taking place in July. The national women’s team, Banyana Banyana qualified by winning WAFCON.
Jordaan says the country is planning to bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027, but admits there’s plenty of work to do prior to that.
He says to strengthen their bid, they need to show that the national team is competitive at the highest level.
You see, with the 2010 World Cup, we had Nelson Mandela, and we had archbishop Tutu. Well, we don;t have them anymore.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
We want our women to play full time. You can see the difference between players that play overseas compared to the ones who play locally within Banyana Banyana and if we want to compete at World Cups, we need to close that gap by making our league professional, which will also improve our chances of hosting in 2027.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
We have to win Afcon again and do well in the world cup to strengthen that bid and we need to give the team all the support that they need in order to achieve that.
Danny Jordaan, SAFA President.
Watch Robert Marawa’s interview with Danny Jordaan here:
This article first appeared on 947 : Bafana Bafana must qualify for AFCON: Danny Jordaan
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