SAFA CEO Tebogo Motlanthe has responded to reasons for Banyana Banyana's trip to earthquake-devastated country, Turkey.
Turkey, along with Syria, has been rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake just over a week ago, which has reportedly claimed the lives of around 40 000 people.
However, in the midst of the national disaster, Banyana are one of the countries that travelled to Turkey, to participate in the Turkish Women's Cup as preparations for the FIFA Women's World Cup, despite the host country pulling out of the event.
Read: Banyana Depart For Turkey To Continue World Cup
Motlanthe says insofar as safety is concerned, they have done their "due diligence" after engaging with FIFA and the organizers of the tournament.
"The issue of Banyana playing in Turkey, I know most of you wanted interviews and I was not giving interviews for a reason that we did not want to scare the players," Motlanthe told journalists in a press conference.
"But the procedure that we have followed, 1, as you know the team was supposed to be playing in Cyprus, in a Cyprus Cup and later Cyprus decided to trim and we were no longer invited, you know that you go by invitation.
"And before the earthquake happened, we then received an invite from Turkey, which the TD (Walter Steenbok) and the coach (Desiree Ellis) discussed and felt that it was a good thing to do," he said.
"Then the earthquake happened, then we were in touch with the President, we engaged FIFA, we engaged with the organizers. The organizers said it is safe to come, FIFA said it's safe to come, that's why Zambia went there because we were with Zambia asking questions of safety. So we have done due diligence in ensuring the safety.
"The second question people were saying on a moral basis was, why are you going there when people are mourning?" Motlanthe continued.
Read: SAFA Yet To Make Decision On Banyana's Trip To Turkey
"We wrote to many federations (and) we did not get an opponent and you might be in a situation where Zambia goes to Turkey to prepare and South Africa, we decided not to go, we're the very same people who are going to attack the association and say no, but we missed an opportunity.
"But also the coach, we had to take the preparation because the coach says, 'I'm in a critical stage, I only have three windows before the World Cup," he went on.
"So if I leave this chance to go, it means I'm left with two, how do I then choose the team?' So after having a meeting with the coach and the technical director we then took a decision that the team will go and participate," he added.
Banyana opened their tournament with a 3-0 win over Uzbekistan on Saturday.
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