The South African Football Association (Safa) is in discussions with the Northern Cape government to build a football stadium in the province. 

This was one of the major issues discussed during Safa’s ordinary congress at Birchwood Hotel in Johannesburg on Saturday where president Danny Jordaan took the opportunity to fire a broadside at his detractors. 

Jordaan, under heavy scrutiny and criticism from detractors since a raid on Safa House in Nasrec by the Hawks in March related to allegations of fraud and theft amounting to R1.3m and linked to the Safa president, hit back on Saturday that “all is well” at the association.

He revealed plans for a stadium on the Northern Cape, which does not have a team in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) but they have Hungry Lions and Upington City in the Motsepe Foundation Championship (or first division), which are both presently in the top half of the table. 

“You will find in the Northern Cape we have two professional teams there in Hungry Lions and Upington City. These were two last teams that were promoted into the National First Division (NFD) and we hope they will strengthen those teams and get further promotion,” Jordaan said. 

“Further to that we have engaged the Northern Cape government about the building of a stadium because they don’t have a stadium that complies with international standards. 

“We will not be able to play international football there unless we address that issue. We will have further meetings with the government to emphasise the importance that we have at least a Caf and Fifa-compliant stadium to host international matches.” 

Jordaan said among issues discussed at the congress was the professionalisation of Safa's women's national HollywoodBets Super League. 

“[The] HollywoodBets Super League has progressed over time and we want to strengthen it. I had a meeting with the [sports] minister [Zizi Kodwa] to discuss what steps can be taken to accelerate the path to professionalisation of the league. 

“There are major obstacles in that regard, the main one being the broadcast revenue. There is the [second tier] Sasol League, a provincial league played across nine provinces, which has shown the growth of women's football. 

“Below that we have the HollywoodBets Regional League and on the men’s side we have the ABC Motsepe League [third tier of men's football], which has done tremendously well. One of the things the ABC Motsepe League had to do since it was launched was to transform professional football. 

“When we started, professional [football] was dominated by major cities like Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg and many other cities did not have access to a professional league.” 

Jordaan blew Safa’s trumpet as he highlighted some of the recent achievements by the men's and women's national teams — Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana. 

“The congress received reports as an overview of the past year, what achievements have been made and looking forward to the programmes. This is contained in a document called the Safa Activity Report. 

“First was the fact that Banyana became African champions for the first time in the history of South African football and that Bafana collected the bronze medal at the recently completed Africa Cup of Nations.” 

Banyana won their first Women's Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in 2022 and Bafana ended third at this year's Nations Cup.