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The SA Football Association (Safa) head honchos should hang their heads in shame over how they have treated Banyana Banyana players ahead of their participation in the Fifa World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
This is not how you treat your heroes, the only national football team that is making the country proud.
But, alas, instead of addressing the players’ concerns regarding match bonuses, Safa leadership opted to send the World Cup-bound squad packing and called up a makeshift team to play against Botswana last weekend.
Banyana’s grievances are legitimate. Safa should have addressed them long before they were raised.
Why play Botswana when the team is going to play tougher opponents at the World Cup? Why take the game to the substandard Tsakane Stadium which can’t even host PSL matches?
Why not include figures in the contract they wanted the players to sign? How often have we had such issues raised just before major tournaments?
How they treated Banyana is unsporting and uncalled for. The team left without a proper send-off and low on morale following the impasse which could have been resolved a long time ago.
Banyana qualified for the World Cup exactly a year ago in July, but nothing was done to sort out all the logistics beforehand until a week before they left for the event.
READ: Banyana's World Cup hotel requires hungry guests to pay R450 for breakfast
This begs the question: Do we have the right people in charge of our football?
The Safa leadership will have blood on their hands if the team does not do well at the World Cup for they have demoralised Banyana and broken their spirit even before they have kicked an official ball at the tournament.
