There is a lot of excitement around Banyana Banyana making history at the FIFA Women's World Cup and major focus is on the player earnings from the governing body, but less has been said about how South Africa can maintain their level for upcoming tournaments.
Banyana won their first game at the World Cup after edging Italy in a five-goal thriller on Wednesday and qualified for the last 16 for the first time in their history.
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In fact, Desiree Ellis' charges became the first and only South African national football team to reach the knockout stages of a World Cup, when including Bafana Bafana's history.While the focus has now shifted to how much each player is set to receive from FIFA's financial contribution to players (approximately R1.1 million per player), it has been forgotten that prior to Banyana jetting to Australia and New Zealand, there was even uncertainty on whether they would participate at the global showpiece after a bonus row with SAFA.
So how much better can Banyana perform at major events like the World Cup if they receive full support from the association?
Former Banyana captain Portia Modise suggested that it's incredible what Banyana have done given all the drama before they jetted off and she urged them to be "proud but not big headed".
"I implemented something that these girls can get proper structure, something we couldn't do and these girls are making sure that they are making us proud. It's such a moment! I'm proud, despite everything," Modise said on SuperSport TV.
"You made history, you need to be proud, don't be big headed about it but be proud of it. I'm asking Mzansi, 'do you still blame Banyana for boycotting?' We deserve better.
"We put all our hearts for you guys Mzansi. When they come back, they deserve more bonuses."
Brand Africa founder and chairman Thebe Ikalafeng also suggested that the bigger picture for Banyana is to focus on institutionalising the winning culture and one of the keys to that is support from the organisation running football in the country, SAFA.
"The challenge that we have in South Africa is that we're such short-termists. It's amazing that Banyana actually won considering the challenges that they had from a logistics (perspective). This requires partnership from the organisation, like SAFA to try and eliminate these challenges that we have, year in and year out before the major events," he said on eNCA.
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