The South African Football Association (Safa) and the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa are heading for a collision course.
This follows Safa’s rejection of the Football Indaba idea that Mthethwa came with and is looking at hosting from the 15th until the 17th of next month.
He first spoke about this Football Indaba after Bafana Bafana had lost to Ivory Coast in their opening African Cup of Nations (Afcon) game in Egypt in June. They went on to to lose to Nigeria in the quarterfinals.
Reading out the resolutions of the Safa Council Extra-ordinary meeting on Thursday, outgoing CEO Russell Paul said as the football mother body in the country, it’s only them who can call a Football Indaba and not a third party (government).
Mthethwa is currently in Japan attending the Rugby World Cup tournament where the Springboks are playing in the final on Saturday in Yokohama against England. According to Paul, he had met with Safa last week as they tried to engage him on the Football Indaba.
The Department of Sport has already sent out invites to delegates.
Mthethwa, who came in as the Minister of Sport in June this year, recently told SABC Sport that he’s calling the Indaba next month because SA football is not doing well at international level.
But this is something that Safa is rejecting and says their national teams have been performing well at continental and international level in recent years. Paul says they are now waiting for Mthethwa to return from Japan to engage him on this. – Report by Velile Mnyandu
