17 November 2022 – SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan on Thursday (17 November) revisited the 2010 FIFA World Cup memories back to the global football audience touching on how pessimistic the world was ahead of the biggest world sporting showpiece.
That pessimism was all to change after South Africa hosted one of the most successful World Cups ever.
Speaking at the World Football Summit Africa at the ICC in Durban on Thursday, 17 November, Dr Jordaan spoke of how the European audience kept speaking of Plan B because they never thought an African country would pull off such an event.
“But since then, the way the rest of the world views Africa has changed, thanks to the 2010 FIFA World Cup,” said Dr Jordaan.
The SAFA President told the football audience that the Association was investing massively in the youths and a good talent was emerging in the country.
“This is a process and in order to produce good talent we need to produce quality coaches en masse in a bid to have a reasonable player/coach ratio.”
He said because of the 2010 legacy, women football was growing rapidly in the country.
Dr Jordaan said he would like the promotion of women’s game to be at par to that of men. He said women’s football should be commercialized to add value.
The SAFA President showered praise to Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis for doing an exceptional job and thanked Hollywood Bets Super League sponsors, Hollywood Bets for an excellent partner.
Dr Jordaan also touched on FIFA international calendar saying the way it was structured, disadvantaged the continent because of the arduous traveling schedule on the African continent.
He said African national teams needed more time to prepare for major tournaments to do well.