Bafana Bafana striker Percy Tau has shed some light on the senior’ player’s meeting with SAFA ahead of the AFCON and provided insight into the early days of the Bafana camp.
SAFA president Danny Jordaan announced that the federation had reached an agreement with the players and staff over the distribution of the $7 million (about R131 million) winning prize money.
"I am here to make sure that every box has been ticked," Jordaan told SAFA media.
"There is nothing outstanding and that everything is in place for them to focus on football, deliver on football and give us the kind of performances that will make the nation take a deep breath and say we have a team."
"We have to get the team to focus, we have to clear everything and if they win, they get 7 million. If they lose they get nothing. We want the team to focus and perform.
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Speaking to media at the Bafana camp in Stellenbosch on Monday, Tau said revealed that it was more than finances that had to be ironed out and said he was relieved to see the issues resolved.
"We’re happy that we’ve been able to finalise everything, I don’t think the money was the only issue, there were other issues that we had to sort out," Tau said.
"We are happy everything was sorted out and now we just want to focus on football right now. Tau goes into the continental competition on the form of his life, having recently been crowned the 2023 CAF Inter-Club Player of the Year, becoming the first South African to win the prestigious award.
"It is nice [to go to AFCON after winning the award] but I still have to do the work. It will be nice when we start the work against Mali. So yes, I will just try to put everything aside and try to get a good results on the first game."
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Bafana reported for camp on 4 January and will play Lesotho on Wednesday, 10 January before flying to Ivory Coast.
"We are preparing well, we are confident with the way we’ve been doing things," Tau added.
"Still early days but then everyone is confident about the tournament that we are going into. We just have to try hard and stay injury-free."
The 1996 champions will kick off their 2023 AFCON title ambitions with a Group E clash against Mali on 16 January before meeting Namibia on 21 January and wrapping up the group stage action against Tunisia on 24 January.
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