Safa bid to host Champions League final

The SA Football Association (Safa) have submitted a letter of intent to the Confederation of African Football (Caf) to host both the Caf Champions League final and Women’s Champions League tournament in SA.

The men’s Champions League final is scheduled to take place on May 29 with at least 16 teams from across the continent still fighting for a place in the climax.

SA is also well represented in the group stages with former champions Mamelodi Sundowns and newbies AmaZulu both doing well in their respective groups.

Safa vice president Gladwyn White confirmed on Friday that they’ve written to their continental mother body to stage the contest in the country.

“Last season we saw SA football fans and the SA media having this ideal dream of our representatives, Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs, making it to the Caf Champions League,” White said.

“However, Sundowns didn’t make it to the final for that ideal dream or wish that we had.

“We were proud of what Chiefs achieved under difficult circumstances they went through.

“This current season we have heard the coach of AmaZulu saying the club can go one match better than Kaizer Chiefs. That brings hope and excitement to us that we can expect an all-SA final.

“AmaZulu are currently second in their respective group and are doing very well. We hope that as they are in Algeria they will come back with positive results.

“Also in the other group we have seen Sundowns being the top team,”  he said at Safa House.

“We hope that this time around we will not let the SA fans down and they will go all the way together with AmaZulu.

“That’s why as the Safa leadership we have submitted the letter of intent to host the Caf Champions League final of 2022 where we would like these two SA clubs to come and display their skills in front of their own fans and local football lovers.

“As the Safa leadership once again, we thought it would be prudent for us to support the Caf Champions League for women so that Sundowns can defend their title in front of their supporters, as a way of thanking and appreciating this development of women football.”

While the bidding is yet to take place, Safa are confident that hosting the event might be a reality because of the response from Caf.

“After submitting our intent to Caf, in their response to give us a criteria for us to formally bid, we were not surprised that they were extremely elated for them to include as bonus for us to assist in hosting the African Cup of Nations for women,” concluded White.