Have to kick off with a massive congratulations to Desiree Ellis and her Banyana Banyana team for lifting the Wafcon trophy.
Something we should all be really proud of and something that has raised a couple of comments. Firstly, whether they’re crooking or not, Danny Jordaan needs to get his frikkin house in order.
He just looks like a thief blundering his way through questions regarding player bonuses. Yes, Caf pay any prize money to Safa and Safa distributes, but why is there such confusion over the amounts?
And why should the prize money be subject to “Safa costs” for sending the team to the tournament? If they hadn’t got to the final there would have been no money and no covering of costs.
Again, there may be reasonable explanations, in which case why doesn’t Safa make details public before the time? Then there’s the issue of what the win means moving forward?
Lets face it, after all the pomp and swag Jordaan threw around regarding “Vision 2022” the overall football picture in South Africa is still completely underwhelming given the World Cup, time and resources that were made available.
The sad reality is that Banyana’s historic win will be used by the Safa board to justify their incompetency.
As for the men’s game… well, just leave it to Nandos to capture the status quo in a sentence “Watch and learn boys, Banyana show them flames”.
Anyway, let me get back to what I’m meant to be talking about… the English Premier League!
And ladies and gents… the wait is over! It’s back and kicking off this Friday at 9pm as Arsenal (the ‘process’ kings) travel to Selhurst Park to face Big Pat’s Crystal Palace.
I tell you what, for me, one of the better fixtures of the season as far as it usually produces fiery, exciting football in an atmosphere to match.
Funnily enough, the much-anticipated Arsenal fly-on-the-wall documentary “All or Nothing” is released on Thursday. I’ve seen snippets, it is a fascinating watch, especially some of Mikel Arteta’s weird speeches.
The only downside is that we know the ending… nothing!
But big things are expected at the Emirates this campaign, Gabriel Jesus is a quality player, but for me Oleksandr Zinchenki has to be one of the buys of the (off) season.
He’s exactly the sort of player they’ve lacked, the type that will bring much needed solidity to the side. The other stand-out fixture for me this weekend, also in London, is West Ham v Man City.
A good early test for Pep Guardiola’s gang. Not sure how you are feeling, but I’m thinking third place to seventh are going to be bunched closer to the top two (Man City and Liverpool).
But given the uncertainty of Jurgen Klopp’s new look front line it just feels like they ain’t gonna be what they were.
No Sadio Mane and no Divock Origi to bring on late? and marquee signing Darwin Nunez, making Romelu Lukaku look like peak Ronaldinho in his last couple of outings? It’s gonna be interesting to see how that pan’s out.
Meanwhile, the chasing pack has dipped seriously into the market. It’s gonna be an amazing season. Send me your predictions and thoughts: dailyvoice@inl.co.za chat next week… bye byeeee.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za