Russell Paul joins SA’s 2027 WWC bid, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka next?

This was revealed by current SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao on Thabiso Mosia’s Game On show on Radio 2000 on Monday evening.

Paul left SAFA in 2019 to take up a position as the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup Local Organizing Committee’s Chief Operations Officer (COO). 

The national association has for the past few months been searching for the administrative head of this bid, and Monyepao says Paul is the perfect fit.  

"So, we have got Russel Paul on board now, he's going to be leading the bid because he's very experienced, and he was in Qatar, so he's going to be leading this for us," revealed Monyepao.

"There are so many documents we have to gather from the provinces, host cities, and the stadia, so he's going to be helping us a lot with that."

SABC Sport also understands SAFA are working around the clock to secure the services of former State Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as the Chairperson of the 2027 WWC bid committee. 

"Through the minister's office, we are also engaging MEC's for Sport in the different provinces on Thursday, just to let them know where we are [in the process] so that we can get their support," she added.

"In August, we'll be going to New Zealand and Australia for a bid observer programme, so that we can get more guidance in terms of what we need to be doing as far as the bid book is concerned. So, we've covered a lot of ground, but there is still a lot of work to do.

"We have returned the bid agreement to FIFA, and now the next step is for us to put together the bid book, which is due on 8 December this year, in terms of the documentation required.

"The research needed to go into it that bid book is a lot and we'll need more manpower – from a legal perspective and architecture because the stadia needs someone really skilled in infrastructure, etc. So, we will be calling on a lot of people to help us in this journey."