WAFCON star Seoposenwe: ‘SAFA’s ill-treatment reason for my retirement’

The 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) star Jermaine Seoposenwe has made shocking revelations on the actual reasons for her retirement from the South Africa’s senior women’s national football team.

Seoposenwe opened up on her retirement in an exclusive interview with South Africa’s top sports radio show host Robert Marawa on his Robert Marawa on 947.

The Mexico-based attacker cited the South African Football Association (SAFA)s’s poor treatment of the players and failure to pay perks in time as the major reasons for her retirement. She called it time on her career after the tournament in Morocco.

“It has been a journey,” Seoposenwe explained. “Football has given me everything. It is tough to walk away from the national team after 15 years—the ability that I have and that I know I have.

“It is something that I feel like I have to do. At the end of the day, I haven’t been happy with the national team for a long time. I don’t want to continue pushing through those feelings and those emotions. I don’t want to be unhappy. I don’t want to continue to struggle for things that as a national team player you deserve.”

The 31-year-old faulted SAFA for failing to plan for the national teams’ salaries before major tournaments, further questioning why coach Desiree Ellis does not stand with her squad when it is fighting for its rights.

“It is definitely the association and the treatment of us. Every time we go to a major tournament, we have to fight about money, we have to fight about everything…why do we have to fight? Why can’t you plan out for the year? FIFA gives you the calendar…why don’t you budget for those FIFA dates…It is always money issues,” Seoposenwe said.

The CF Monterrey striker went on to reveal that Banyana Banyana players staged a sit-in before the WAFCON third-place play-off against Ghana.

“Before the Ghana game, the players were boycotting because we hadn’t come to an agreement with the association, and we left for the game late. We were supposed to leave at 5:30pm, we only left at 6:00pm and the kickoff was at 8:00pm,” she added.

The Bafana Bafana legend added that she didn’t understand why the coach “wouldn’t get involved in our fight as players and that was disappointing for me…”

Ellis’s team returned empty-handed from the competition after losing 4-3 on post-match penalties to Ghana, following a one-all tie in regulation time. The previous WAFCON title holders had lost 2-1 to Nigeria in a semifinals to settle for the bronze medal fight which was never to be.