Banyana Banyana made history when they reached the Last 16 of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, before getting knocked out by the Netherlands. Even then, they gave a good account of themselves in their last game in the Australia/New Zealand showpiece, and were it not for the brilliance of the opposition goalkeeper, we perhaps may be talking a different story right now. Desiree Ellis' charges defied the odds if all the controversy prior to their departure for the global tournament was anything to go by. They might have not reached the quarterfinals, but certainly left the rest of the women's football world in awe. In this interview, former Safa vice-president Ria Ledwaba tells Soccer Laduma's Zola Doda that the team can do much better at the next tournament, which, by the way, might take place in… wait for it… South Africa!
Zola Doda: Ria, give us your thoughts on Banyana Banyana's 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup campaign.
Ria Ledwaba: In my opinion, Banyana Banyana represented Africa very well, you know. They really went out there and performed like African champions. In the first game against Sweden, we even scored first and you could see Sweden being really shaken up a bit. After that goal, they couldn't play for almost the next 10 minutes and we are talking about a team that is ranked number three in the world. Our girls went there knowing the calibre of the team that they were going to play against. So, for me, I think my expectations of the team going to the World Cup this time round was for them to be able to go through to the next round and what happened after the next round didn't matter, you know. They played the Last 16 match against a team ranked number nine in the world (the Netherlands) and they really, really performed well. Yes, we lost the game, but when you look at the overall performance of the team on the day, I think the really did well.
ZD: What impressed you the most?
RL: They played as a team. We had Thembi (Kgatlana), who was too fast for everyone. She had a good tournament. People think that she holds on to the ball for too long, but if you look at every time she had the ball, there was nobody nearer, she was always all by herself and that is because she is the fastest player in the game. If you look at the match where we beat Italy 3-2, the goals that we scored, it was because of the passes between the players. They were nearer to each other, that's why we were able to punish them. But for most of the time when Thembi had the ball up front there, she was all by herself and everybody was behind and it was because she's just too fast for most players to be next to her. To watch our players playing together as a team, being able to pass the ball to each other and to see everyone on the field of play involved was good to see. The improvement of our team is visible and we can only take it up from here. In the next World Cup qualifying match, we are going to do well because we have seen players coming in who have also performed very well. This means that South Africa has talent and our leagues, the SASOL League and National Women's League, they are helping a lot. Previously we used to depend entirely on the High Performance Centre to produce players. Due to lack of funding, the High Performance Centre has 13 players instead of 25, and if we can increase that number to 25 and add those players to the SASOL League and National Women's League, that will help. We also need a professional league – that is the missing piece. If our girls can have a professional league that would pay them like the men's league, South Africa will go far at the next World Cup.
ZD: The issue of setting up a professional league is something a lot of people have been talking about, but what needs to be done to get it going and not just talk about it?
RL: Look, professional league in this country is in the hands of the Premier Soccer League, not the South African Football Association, we need to be very clear about that. SAFA cannot have a professional league, they don't run the professional league, they run amateur football – that is the responsibility of the South African Football Association. The fact that CAF has already indicated that no team can participate in CAF competitions unless you have a women's league, that is the beginning. I'm sure the PSL is also looking at how they can form that professional league because it will assist the National Women's League when we have a professional league. It can only be under the PSL, according to the constitution of the South African Football Association.
ZD: The captain of Italy said she couldn't believe there is no professional league in SA considering the talent Banyana have.
RL: That was true. But most Banyana Banyana players are playing overseas professionally, it might not be all of them. That is something that also assisted our players with confidence, knowing that they were not playing against their opponents for the first time, they play against each in their respective leagues.
ZD: How much progress has women's football made in this country?
RL: We have come a long way and for us to be in the FIFA World Cup Last 16, in only the second attempt, tells you a lot. Most countries have been participating since 1991 and this was only our second time. When I look at when we started the High Performance Centre, we were not performing at this standard. We have been performing well at the World Cup, not just adding numbers. Unfortunately, we have not done that with the national U17 and U20 (teams), but that is where we are going. If we can start looking at U17 and U20 and put our development effort on those two teams and add the number of players at the High Performance Centre, I can guarantee you, we will do well. And we have to go to the next Afcon and protect our championship.
ZD: In terms of World Cup preparations, how do we resolve the issue of players' bonuses long before the tournament starts?
RL: The leadership of an organisation must be upfront with the girls. The negotiations must start before the tournament starts, especially when they qualified after the Wafcon. I mean, how long was that? You would have expected the leadership of SAFA to have gathered the players even before they left for Wafcon. I know being at Wafcon doesn't necessarily mean you will qualify for the World Cup, but the senior players who are always there, get them together, negotiate with them and say, "This is our idea in terms of payment, what do you think?" so that it can be done. I see a lot a media saying that for the World Cup payments, players will be paid directly – I don't think FIFA will do something like that. They will pay the money to the federation because they have an obligation to the federation. They will pay it to the federation and the federation will be able to pay the players. And I'm only hoping we are not going to talk about the payment of players without any media hype or protest by South Africans. The money should just be paid when they (SAFA) receive the money from FIFA. When FIFA pays the money, the players should get their money too. The players must also be reimbursed by the Association because that payment is a FIFA payment. The Association must also thank the players and the technical team for their participation at the World Cup. We must not hear that players have not been paid even when FIFA has paid the money.
ZD: As someone who's been directly involved with women's football in this country, what does the success of this team mean to you personally?
RL: The work that we started in 2004 at the High Performance Centre is now giving us the fruits. I really believe this didn't start with Vera Pauw or anybody else, it started there at the High Performance Centre. It started when SASOL sponsored the SASOL League. People might see this benefit now, but for me, this is the work that has been done at the High Performance Centre, the support that SASOL has put into women's football over the years. I'm sure now they are rejoicing that the money they put into Women's League, it's now giving us the fruits.
ZD: What about the possibilities of hosting the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup? Will that be a crowning moment in women's football in Mzansi?
RL: It's definitely something that South Africa wants to see. It will probably give our girls an opportunity to go to the quarterfinals, semi-finals or even the final. When you are hosting, you have the strength from the support in the country, we need that. We need the leadership that is going to make sure that when we have the World Cup, it's a World Cup that is going to benefit South African football and benefit the players that are playing there. We don't want to see what happened with the 2010 Legacy Trust. The Legacy Trust, there is no visible benefit that we can say the regions have offices and were given money to run their league properly, that never happened. We don't want to have a leadership with this World Cup that is going to do the same thing that happened with the Legacy Trust of 2010. That must never be allowed.
ZD: If we win the rights to host the 2027 showpiece, what would you like to be done with the Legacy Trust?
RL: Empower the women's leagues. If we can have a professional league, then we will know that our girls are going to flourish. It must also help the regions. The regions are the base where women are playing. At the Local Football Associations, that's where our girls are playing. We must see fields for girls. We are struggling when it's time for girls to play, they don't have the field because boys are playing there before them. We must have fields that are user-friendly for our women out there, they must not be struggling for fields when we have the Women's World Cup. The 2010 World Cup should have done that. We should be seeing that the regions are not struggling to pay municipalities a lot of money in terms of booking the venues. They should be having their own venues where they can host their own play-offs. Football money must be able to empower football people. The priority is to make sure that when the World Cup is hosted in South Africa, South Africans are not the same again, but we did not see that with the 2010 World Cup. Bafana Bafana should be up there, but they are not, but we hosted the World Cup.
ZD: Last but not least, what's your biggest wish for women's football in this country?
RL: Professional league. I want to see in my lifetime that there is a professional league in South Africa for the girls and they earn and live out of that. Youngsters who are coming up can say there is something to play for in football. We hope that the national league will also be sustainable because there are issues with the national league. Grants are going up and down and (it) doesn't help teams in terms of what they want to do.
