Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis was left unimpressed with the organisational skills – or rather the lack thereof – of Safa Western Cape.
This comes after the shambles and uncertainty leading up to the build-up of the Sasol League’s Women’s playoff final between the defending champs UCT Ladies and The Magic Ladies.
UCT ran out comfortable winners by 3-0 at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Saturday.
A workshop was conducted by Ellis, however there was a low turnout of coaches as there was probably again a breakdown in communication to ensure that the coaches were present and on time.
Furthermore, the province’s secretary Nadia Konstabel arrived late – with an Uber.
But the biggest blunder was when the final, initially scheduled for the UWC Stadium, had to be moved to one of the fields adjacent to the stadium as the venue was not booked and secured.
This is because the UWC were not aware that the Sasol playoffs were taking place at UWC as the already had their own internal events which took place at the stadium and on the outside fields.
UWC spared the province further embarrassment when they made a plan to accommodate the game which was played on a rather poor field for a game of that magnitude. The lack of planning for this event was shocking to say the least.
When Safa WC’s deputy president Chris Tyhawana was probed on the matter, he replied: “Did we (Safa WC) say the game was going to be at the stadium? “The sponsor had a workshop that was right next to the field and the sponsor felt it was closer.”
This is in total contrast to the representatives from the University who confirmed to our website that the province did not book the venue for the final.
“They wanted to take shortcuts, so we gave them shortcuts… playing such a game on an open field,” said the source from UWC.
This is not the first time that the province exposes itself with the lack of basic organisational skills. When will it improve for the better? After all is said and done, the immediate question remains: Why didn’t they request Cape Town to host, like Caf and FIFA does with hosting Nations?
