Verbatim from South African Football Association President Danny Jordaan.
“One of the big issues in the period 2023-26 is the next FIFA World Cup, which is a 48-nation World Cup and also a World Cup that will be three countries. So, it’s an extraordinary challenge, but I think it’s a platform to raise the level of competition, the profile of global football, and, also, from a revenue generation point of view, I think it’s a huge opportunity.”
“Because South Africa hosted the first African World Cup, I was keen to listen to him talk about the Middle East’s first World Cup. These things are important because it demonstrates the growth and development of football all over the world. As FIFA says, they aim to make the game truly global, and to make the game truly global we must not only play the game, we must also host nations in our continents and in our countries. So, it was quite an interesting discussion around these issues.”
“Of course, as we go to 2023, the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, our team South Africa Women is going to its second consecutive World Cup, and we are looking at making a bid for the next World Cup, 2027. I know the competition’s going to be tough. Europe is there, the United States, Chile is there, and we are also going to be in that race.”
“We want to have at least one million women footballers by 2030. We now have 469,000 players. We want to double that so that, by the time the World Cup comes around, we must be close to a million women footballers. These are quite exciting projects that FIFA and President Infantino are very enthusiastic as a supporter.”