12 February 2025 – FIFA Council and Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Member Isha Johansen paid a courtesy visit to the South African Football Association’s (SAFA) headquarters in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, on Wednesday afternoon and was welcomed by President Dr Danny Jordaan.
It was the former Sierra Leone Football Association President’s first visit to SAFA House, and she was happy to also meet the Association’s CEO Lydia Monyepao.
“SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan has been an old, long-time friend, of course, through football. The South African Football Association is a significant federation for all of us when it comes to Africa, not least because, of course, our CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe is from South Africa. I think South Africa has paved the way over the years in terms of football development,” she said.
“They have done some incredible stuff with women’s football development and youth football development. I mean, I don’t know how well you know this, but in 2010, way before I became President of the Sierra Leone Football Association, I actually invited the South African National Under-20 to Sierra Leone because I organized what was called the African International Youth Tournament, where I invited the rest of the world.
“We’d just come out of a terrible war, the civil war. All that was known about (Sierra Leone) was the child soldiers and the cutting of the limbs and what have you. So, I organized (the African International Youth Tournament). Dr Danny Jordaan was very, very gracious and he said, ‘OK, we will send our boys, our Under-20 national team’, as did Senegal, as did Liberia, and as did Ghana. We had a fantastic tournament in Sierra Leone. So, I’ve always wanted to come to this federation to say thank you again.”
Johansen said leadership comes with its challenges and difficulties, and SAFA is no exception.
“We respect leadership as well. In President Danny Jordaan there has been leadership. Of course, we all have our problems, and no single FA president will say that it’s been a smooth ride. But there’s been leadership, there’s something to look up to here in this federation. I come to this building and every single department there has to be is here, which is very admirable. So, yes, it’s basically that you come to a country, and you come and see what the Football Federation is like, what are they are doing and what is the progress report? I was talking to President Jordaan about the youth football development programs and the female development programs, again, which I think you guys have been very, very active on.”
Johansen said the trip to SAFA House has been in the works for a long time and arriving in the South of Johannesburg to find SAFA CEO Monyepao holding the front door was a special thrill.
“This is my first time here and I’m extremely impressed. It’s even nicer and greater to see a female Secretary General at SAFA. It’s very nice for us, and we’re going places. We spoke about this thing of tokenism, which I will forever be stressing on. Women like us in positions of governance and administration in football, it’s very rare to see.
“When we do get there, there’s always this question mark as to whether we’re a token number or whether we deserve to be in that space. So, I can absolutely say with Lydia, she definitely deserves it. She’s very astute and I’m very happy to have met her. We spoke quite a bit about development programs. In particular, I spoke to her and President Jordaan about a gender empowerment initiative using football for reforms, girls in the correctional centers.
“This is something that’s going on now with CAF, something I initiated through CAF. It started off in Sierra Leone, bringing coaching license courses to the correctional centers. It started in Sierra Leone, Ghana’s just completed theirs and it’s going to kickstart in Liberia. The plan is for all of Africa, all the member associations, to use it as part of their corporate social responsibility. It’ll be a CAF corporate social responsibility, which in turn should be that of the member associations. I think that’s an extremely interesting, encouraging, and a strong, powerful gender empowerment program for women, young women particularly, in correctional centers. It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops in the coming months, this year, and into the coming years.”
Dr Jordaan was happy to welcome the FIFA Council and CAF Executive Member to SAFA House.
“It was such a privilege to host Isha and her husband at SAFA House today. These are the conversations that motivate and keep us grounded as we continue to focus on the core business of football, and on working towards success for South African football,” the SAFA President said.
