Gaoshubelwe claimed SAFA president Danny Jordaan was to blame for the standoff.<\/p>\n
South Africa Sports Minister Zizi Kodwa said in a statement he would be meeting with the players’ union on Tuesday \u201cto hear the serious concerns expressed by the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting would be about the players’ \u201cwelfare\u201d and issues related to their contracts, Kodwa said.<\/p>\n
The squad is due to fly to New Zealand in two groups on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that players were also annoyed that their farewell game before the World Cup was held at the Tsakane Stadium, which holds just 5,000 people and is not a high-profile soccer venue.<\/p>\n
The players viewed that as a mark of disrespect for them from their national soccer association, the SABC reported.<\/p>\n
SABC and other television networks broadcast images of the World Cup squad members standing around outside their team bus at a hotel shortly before the game was due to kickoff. SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao was seen speaking with the players.<\/p>\n
South Africa won the Women’s African Cup of Nations last year for its first major title, yet the players have often complained that they aren’t given the recognition or benefits that the men’s team gets.<\/p>\n
South Africa is due to play Costa Rica in New Zealand on July 15 in its final World Cup warm-up game. South Africa plays Sweden, Argentina and Italy in the group stage at the World Cup, starting against the Swedes on July 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A standoff between South Africa\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup squad and the national soccer association over pay and other issues has forced officials to field a makeshift team of little-known players that included a 13-year-old for a game against Botswana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":30025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-30028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n