Jordaan backs Banyana to reach knockout stages of World Cup

South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan believes Banyana Banyana have a very good chance of qualifying for the next round of the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup.

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Banyana were drawn in Group G together with Sweden, Italy and Argentina in their group.

“When you look at the World Cup, it has the 32 best teams in the world and every group is tough. But looking at our group, I think we stand a chance and we have to prepare well now. We don’t have a world champion in our group, so we do stand a chance but it won’t be easy,” said Jordaan.

“All African teams, I think, are in extremely strong groups. We hope that one or two African teams get through to the second round. We have been to France and this is our second time (at the World Cup), we have to go through to the next round.”

Jordaan attended the Women’s World Cup draw which was held in Auckland, New Zealand this past Saturday, where he used the chance to interact with other associations about South Africa hosting the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

However, the Safa president revealed that they are yet to bid for the competition as they are still waiting for the world football governing body Fifa to lay out regulations requirements and government approval.

“As far as bidding is concerned, we are waiting for two things; for Fifa to bring out the regulations requirements for bidding countries. Germany is here and they are bidding around and talking, and I have also been interacting with different people. So there is a strong feeling that we should be one of those who will be there at the end,” he added.

“It’s still a long way to go. We have to get government approval and acceptance of our credentials from Fifa and get full scale of the bidding. But so far it is very encouraging.”