The chance to forge a bridgehead for women’s sport on the continent has been lost with South Africa deciding against a bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
It was a long shot anyway, with many factors counting against the country, not least of which were economic turmoil and the viability of hosting the event.
The 32-team tournament, which world football governing body Fifa has been pushing hard to turn into another money-spinner for its already substantial coffers, would have been a huge drain on resources not available in South Africa.
The South African bid was up against powerful rivals. Brazil, like South Africa, is an outside bet but a trio of European countries bidding together — Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands — are strong contenders, with another co-bid from Mexico and the US.
Given that the next men’s World Cup will be in North America, in 2026, the European bid would seem the obvious front-runner, though Machiavellian machinations inside Fifa are such that any predictions are foolhardy.
The geopolitical or altruistic considerations that might have informed the choice of previous hosts now looks to be something of the past. Fifa vice-president Victor Montagliani says it should abandon the traditional bidding processes and pick the potential biggest cash generator, in the first blunt enunciation of what the body has been moving towards for some time.
One of the requirements bidding countries had to submit before the December 8 deadline was an economic feasibility study, which would have cost South Africans millions, something the bid did not have.
Also required are signed government guarantees (on issues such as taxation, work permits and visas) as well as contracts negotiated and agreed with host cities, stadiums, hotels and training venues. None of these, according to South African officials, was in place either, leaving no option but to exit the race.
The withdrawal came like a thief in the night via a statement last Friday, conveniently missing the major news cycles.
“The time frame for developing the Women’s World Cup bid has been challenging. This does not diminish our commitment to women’s football, and has instead strengthened our commitment to produce a strong South African women’s team for 2031, and a compelling bid for the same tournament,” said the statement from the South African Football Association (Safa).
“We felt it was better to regroup and present a well-prepared bid for the 2031 Women’s World Cup,” it added.
Earlier this year, Safa president Danny Jordaan offered a compelling argument for a first Women’s World Cup in Africa: “When you look at world football, the first men’s World Cup was [in] 1930. The first World Cup in Africa was [in] 2010 — almost 100 years later. And as a result, what has happened, the gap between European and South American football in relation to Africa and Asia is now impossible to close. Of the global revenue for football, 80% goes to Europe. So Africa is on the margins. Now, if we sit back and do nothing, and the same pattern emerges in women’s football, we are going to struggle to close the gap in women’s football as well.
“We have 10 world-class stadiums from 2010 and the Women’s World Cup requires eight. We want to have a strong bid to hopefully secure the Women’s World Cup on the African continent because that will inspire or invigorate and strengthen African football for women on the continent and close that gap rather than allow the pattern to repeat itself,” he said.
Women’s football [in South Africa] ... has never tested the waters in terms of public appeal
For Fifa, however, commercial considerations now take pride of place and recent machinations around determining the identity of future men’s World Cup hosts (Morocco, Portugal and Spain in 2030 and Saudi Arabia in 2034) reveal its new thinking.
South Africa would have no chance on those terms. There were only a handful of South African sponsors for the 2010 finals such as MTN and FNB, plus parastatals the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and Telkom, which were third-tier sponsors for a package that usually costs about $30m.
Bidding by South African sports bodies for major world events requires government approval, as determined by the National Sport & Recreation Act, and so the cart came before the horse when Safa first announced its intention and registered its interest with Fifa.
Of course, a Women’s World Cup would have been wonderful in South Africa where, to the credit of the various municipalities, all the venues built for the 2010 event are still in tip-top condition and regularly used. Cape Town Stadium and FNB Stadium have recently had new pitches laid and look as sparkling as they did 13 years ago.
Fifa’s demand for a Women’s World Cup includes the prerequisite that all stadiums used must have a capacity of 40,000 or more. No problem for South Africa, but would these be filled? Women’s football today gets more attention with plenty of media space and TV time, but the waters have never been tested in terms of public appeal; entry to Banyana Banyana matches is still free.
There would be a real fear around the prospect of half-empty stadiums in South Africa, particularly after Fifa pushed hard to ensure this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was well supported.
South Africa’s women did well at that event, advancing past the first round, something their male counterparts, Bafana Bafana, have yet to achieve. Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies has just won the CAF Women’s Champions League for the second time in three years. But it is likely that only a distant generation of women footballers will get to strut their stuff in front of home crowds.
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