SAFA president Danny Jordaan says they will face some tough opposition from various football superpowers in their bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027.
Jordaan went on a two-fold trip in October for next year’s Women’s World Cup New Zealand and Australia finals draw to tell all member associations and many others around the globe about South Africa’s intention to bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament.
According to SAFA then, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) gave Jordaan a letter of support when he departed.
SAFA faces several proposed bids for the 2027 World Cup along with that joint bid from Belgium, Germany and Netherlands, who at that time were the only ones that have been confirmed.
Chile, Italy, the United States of America, Mexico and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) have all expressed an interest as well.
“We are up against Germany, Belgium, Netherlands – they have a joint-bid, the three countries,” said Jordaan, who is in Qatar for the Men’s World Cup that started on Sunday.
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“It is a massive challenge for us. There’s Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, they have one bid to co-host it.
“United States is also there with their bid. Chile is there and South Africa as the only one from the African continent. It’s going to be tough, but I think we are now more than equal for this challenge and we are in there for a good shot.”
Much like the successful bid for the 2010 World Cup where Jordaan was the CEO, he previously said he is aware that there is a long road ahead and South Africa will knuckle down to serious hard work in the coming months.
“We have the infrastructure, the stadiums, the hotels and the training venues, and what helps is that we have already hosted a World Cup of 32 nations in 2010,” Jordaan previously said.
“The infrastructure is in place and we have the capacity to deliver. The world knows our capacity, they have seen the stadiums and they have seen our infrastructure.”
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Banyana, unlike Bafana Bafana who failed to qualify for this year’s Men’s World Cup, will feature in the second successive Women’s World Cup next year.
They will head to the World Cup after clinching their first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) in July this year in Morocco.
Story by Robin-Duke Madlala (@duke_robin).
