Safa explain why they are bidding for Afcon

The South African Football Association are officially bidding for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, with Safa CEO Russell Paul indicating they are willing to extend “an olive branch” to help the Confederation of African Football get the tournament organised.

Caf are desperate to find a host, after stripping Cameroon of the tournament, scheduled for June next year, and gave a deadline of midnight last night for interested countries to submit official bid documents.

“We will have whatever we need to have in by midnight,” said Paul.

“You are bidding for something you are only given days and months to prepare for,” he added.

“We are one of those trying to support Caf, and to support the African continent in particular. Especially given that they (Caf) are increasing this competition from 16 to 24 teams (for the first time), you can’t afford to have this thing collapse, so we are extending an olive branch. It is not your traditional bid.”

Safa have already spoken to the South African government, who would need to give assurances over the hosting of the competition.

Danny Jordaan said he has spoken to Minister of Sport and Recreation Tokosile Xasa, who has already publicly said South Africa are interested in hosting. Paul has also been speaking to Director General Alec Moemi.
“I spoke to the Minister of Sport yesterday,” said Jordaan.

“But you see the detailed requirements only come when you get the Organising Association Agreement (OAA). We have the infrastructure, the stadia, the roads, the airports, the hotels, we have more than enough training grounds. The government services, the police, the ambulances, the visas, customs and excise, those are the things government will deliver and no one else can, therefore we need government support.”

Jordaan said that if South Africa’s bid is accepted, that is when the OAA would be sent by Caf to Safa.
“There is an intent (to host), which the minister (Xasa) has confirmed,” added Paul.

“Once we get to the stage of being selected we can start to … identify a proper OAA, and go and negotiate (with government), the OAA has a lot of requirements and already we only have a six month window in theory to have everything ready. We are in the advantageous position that you could arrive this afternoon and play a match.”

As all the infrastructure is in place, Paul estimated that the cost of hosting an Afcon will be “somewhere around 10 to 12 million dollars (about R140 million to R170 million)”.

“From a South African perspective we have zero infrastructure costs … we do not have the challenges associated with a normal bid.”

Jordaan, meanwhile said he was aware that Egypt had also expressed their interest in hosting Afcon 2019. A final decision on who will host is expected from Caf on January 9.

“Egypt said they were not interested at first and they won’t make a bid, because Morocco were making a bid. Yesterday they said Morocco had withdrawn and now we see Egypt are interested. It seems they only want to compete against South Africa,” said the Safa president.

One obvious advantage for Bafana Bafana is that they would automatically qualify as hosts, if South Africa were to get the tournament. As it stands, Stuart Baxter’s side need at least a point from their final qualifier away to Libya in March to make it to Afcon 2019.

Paul suggested that one way Caf might avoid organisational issues in the future, is to have co-hosts for this 24-team tournament.

“Especially, now the tournament has expanded to 24 teams, Caf needs to reconsider their approach, that maybe a 24-team bid has to be a joint bid,” said Paul.

“Very few countries (in Africa) have that kind of infrastructure without needing to spend money.”

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