A REPORT BY MABALENG SPORTS CENTER
While South African Football Association clubs and their staff continue to wait for long-overdue payments, SAFA has sent a large delegation to the 2025 COSAFA African Schools Championship– a trip many are describing as little more than an all-expenses-paid vacation for a select few.
SAFA dispatched an unusually large contingent of officials, administrators, and hangers-on to the regional youth tournament, despite the association’s well-documented financial struggles.
Sources close to the matter claim the delegation includes individuals with no direct involvement in the schools’ programme, raising serious questions about accountability and the misuse of scarce resources.
At the same time, numerous amateur and professional clubs across the country– particularly in the lower tiers – remain unpaid for services rendered months, and in some cases years, ago.
One club official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:
“How can SAFA justify flying dozens of people to a school tournament, putting them up in hotels and covering all their expenses, when grassroots clubs can’t even afford to travel to their own matches? This is not development; this is rewarding friends and loyalists.”
The pattern of preferential treatment is not new. Critics have long accused certain individuals within SAFA structures of using international trips, workshops, and tournaments as personal perks, while those doing the actual work on the ground are neglected.
The COSAFA African Schools Championship, while an important platform for youth development, does not require a delegation of this size.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY: VacationGang
