Guess One Bafana Isn’t Enough

Yes, We Have No Bafanas

What’s in a name?

Apparently more money for the South African Football Association. They are toying with the idea of tinkering with the name of the Bafana Bafana because, well, it’s not theirs, or not entirely theirs.

The South African national team nickname was coined by a trio of Sowetan sportswriters back in the early Nineties.

It was widely adopted and is now, even according to the SAFA website itself, the official nickname of the side.

There was a minor oversight on behalf of the SAFA though, as they neglected to register the name. A company called Stanton Woodrush beat the country’s governing body to the punch. So a separate company called Slam, which owns the merchandising rights for Bafana Bafana is 50.1% owned by SAFA and 49.9% by Stanton Woodrush.

So SAFA only experienced half of a merchandizing windfall after last summer’s World Cup.

Interestingly, Stanton Woodrush apparently approached SAFA with an offer to sell its percentage of Slam to the governing body. But the offer wasn’t responded to.

Now a complete name change is being discussed by Danny Jordaan and two other members of the SAFA National Executive Committee, as there are “too many legalities around the Bafana name.”

There’s a lesson here. Probably something about greed. But I’m thinking maybe one of us should trademark SFB.