Safa Cape Town and Safa Western Cape are at loggerheads – and at a time when the whole world has its eyes on football in the Mother City.
While the National Government has given Safa Cape Town its blessing to host the Palestine National Team in a historic occasion in South African (sport) history to compete in the Football 4 Humanity initiative, the province chose to continue with its scheduled fixture list.
Tension between Safa CT and Safa WC has always been there – but with such a big event on the horizon, one would expect differences to be put aside for the common good of the game.
Tankiso Modipa, chairperson of Safa Western Cape, confirmed this in a statement released on 5 February 2024 and said that the fixture should continue as scheduled.
“By the resolution taken by the PEC in respect to the Provincial Chairman request to assist with SAFA Cape Town request, please note the following: There is only one game on the said date as per the fixture. The game will proceed on 11 February 2024. There are no games scheduled for the 18th as per the fixture.
“The PEC agreed that they don’t have jurisdiction over international games based on SAFA statutes, in the absence of the approval letter as well, they are not in a position to give any approval to stop the games.
“Therefore the games that should take place must take place, it is indeed the clubs’ discretion to attend or not, to give players or not but the province won’t take any responsibility for anything that might happen during the game.” read the statement.
The province’s stance was exacerbated by the secretary of the province Nadia Konstabel, when she issued a second statement on 8 February confirming that the game between Cape Town Spurs and Maties FC will go ahead (14:00) at Ikamva as scheduled.
This communication further confirms that all is not well between the region and the province and things could get really messy.
It is indeed a sad moment for soccer in this region as this is once again an opportunity wasted to not only showcase talent in the area but also show togetherness and the willingness to work together for such an important cause as supporting the Palestine people.
