Defending champions of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Banyana Banyana, have resumed their preparations to successfully defend their continental title following the impasse over monies owed to them by the South African Football Association.
Coach Desiree Ellis and her players returned to the pitch on Saturday afternoon and played a training match against Benin ahead of the start of the WAFCON tournament to be played in Morocco from 5th to the 26th of July.
South Africa open their Group C campaign against Ghana on the 7th of July.
All is well in the Banyana Banyana camp now. This follows fruitful discussions between SAFA and the Banyana Banyana camp in Morocco earlier on Saturday, after engaging the team’s head of delegation and captain Refiloe Jane about the pay dispute.
Banyana Banyana resumed training and even played an international friendly against Benin as part of the preparations. The players are now gearing up for their opening match against Ghana.
Players are also trying to adjust to the extreme heat in Morocco.
Banyana Banyana keeper Kylan Swart says, “It’s so crazy to think that we are just a couple of days away from kick off. We are excited. I know sometimes the environment, you know, the weather, how hot it is. I don’t think we realised how hot it is, even though in 2022 we were here. I think we are all excited; we are ready now. It’s just dotting the i’s and just trying to unite as players, just come together so that when we play our first game, we know exactly what to do. And obviously we want a positive result, which is a win, that’s what we’re looking forward to, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
Banyana Banyana defender Fikile Magamas adds, ” I think the players are feeling well with energy. I am excited to be here, and they are ready to compete in the WAFCON. It’s not the same feeling as before because last time I was here with my team, now I’m here representing the country. So it’s a different feeling to be here, standing for the people who are not here. So it’s a different feeling. I think the preparations so far are going well, the team is happy, excited to be I think we will just do our best, and we can’t wait to start the tournament, so we’re just happy to be here”.
Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea are the only two countries to have successfully defended their WAFCON titles.
Swart admits that there’s always pressure when you go into a tournament as defending champions.
“I always say pressure is a privilege, and I think when our backs are against the wall, that’s when we really perform, and I will back this team 100%. All the time, yes. There is a little bit of being champions because that title holds a lot of weight, but I know that once we start the tournament that pressure is not going to get to us because we know what is gonna take and we’ve grown so much individually and we much more mature now, and I think the coach sees how much we’ve grown. Yeah, that pressure, that’s where we will play at our best. I don’t think that pressure will get into us, but I’m just excited to see how well we do.”
SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao says the bonus structure with Banyana Banyana was agreed upon with the players long before they left for Morocco. The recent impasse centres on the friendly matches played in the last few months.
“We need to accept that we don’t have sufficient resources that we used to have in terms of taking care of both the senior national teams, because the sponsorship for Bafana Bafana has significantly reduced, whereas for Banyana Banyana we have beefed up their bonuses. The bonuses that they get now are four times what they used to get. However, although we increased the bonuses for times we have not managed to get more funding for the team. So, it means we need to dig deep into our pockets as a federation in order to meet all these obligations.”
Banyana Banyana will also face Tanzania and Mali in Group C.
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