With every short-sighted official in soccer having his say about chief executives and junior sides, Andrew Muchineripi wonders if anyone can see the field for the goalposts
The grey clouds over Pretoria this week matched my mood with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) chief executive fiasco and the humiliation of the national junior team triggering pain in every bone of my body.
Football officials continually criti-cise me and other non-sycophantic members of the South African media for being too negative in our reporting of the beautiful game.
Each week I promise the sports editor of your favourite newspaper that I will become a “sunshine journalist” and produce a story positively dripping with milk and honey.
Each week I start preparing with all the enthusiasm of an idealist. Let me go where no soccer journalist has ventured before. Let me unearth the great stories ignored by scandal- seeking, muckraking hacks. There are none.
This humble member of the Muchineripi clan cannot tell you whether it is a lust for power or money or both, but there are far too many soccer officials within our beloved land who are letting the game down. Badly.
Permit me to examine two issues to prove my point before I flee to my bunker, batten down the hatches and stand by for a fusillade of verbal missiles from the holier-than-thou leaders of the sport of the people.
I woke last Sunday to be greeted by a “PSL chief faces the axe” headline splashed across page one of a popular newspaper. As if the weather was not depressing enough, the story made for extremely chilling reading.
In a nutshell, the old curse of South African soccer – the A and B teams – has reared its extremely ugly head again, and this time PSL CEO Joe Ndhlela is the ham in the proverbial sandwich.
Some members of the PSL board of governors (a 24-strong body that includes a representative from each Castle Premiership club) reportedly want Ndhlela out just one month after he succeeded Trevor Phillips.
Why? Because he allegedly uncovered the unauthorised use of PSL cellphones, offices and vehicles by club officials, payments to a travel agency for unused airline seats and the purchase of stationery from Cape Town at three times its cost in Johannesburg.
A faction among the governors apparently want to draw up a contract that reduces Ndhlela to little more than a clerk – a R50E000-a-month executive with all the sweeping powers of a trainee security guard.
Ndhlela, already under the glare of a multi-watt spotlight because of alleged wrongdoings at Transnet, told the weekly PSL media conference that he will not accept a well-paid position to sit behind a desk doing nothing.
Clearly knives marked “Ndhlela” are out and this drama comes at a crucial time for the PSL as it attempts to push forward after 30 months of foundation- building under Phillips, the founding CEO.
I was unhappy with the timing of the Ndhlela appointment because he cannot enjoy the confidence of the football community while the sword of Transnet hangs over his head.
He is innocent until proven guilty, but the allegations against him have been widely reported and we all know the power of perception. The sooner the Transnet affair is concluded the better for Bra Joe, the PSL and soccer.
Another newspaper headline to catch my attention was “Safa worried by junior teams’ poor showing”, following the six-goal hiding Spain dished out to the national under-17 team at the Meridian Cup in Cape Town on Monday.
This embarrassing reverse followed a 2- 1 loss to European champions Republic of Ireland and a 3-1 defeat by African champions Egypt in other first-round matches at Athlone stadium.
While the results did not surprise me, given the quality of the opposition, the extent of the defeat by Spain was worrying. My chief concern, though, is the reaction of a certain high-ranking official.
No less a figure than South African Football Association (Safa) president Molefi Oliphant says he was not amused by the performances in Cape Town. He certainly has no reason to be.
Oliphant wants to call a meeting (the solution to every problem) of the national junior-team coaches, Trott Moloto and Shakes Mashaba, to identify the problem because he says Safa is providing maximum support.
It would seem that the man charged with leading our football shares the view of many South Africans that any problem can be solved simply by throwing a few rands, rather than sense, at it. We wish it were that simple.
Every now and then a youth or junior commitment crops up, a squad is hastily assembled and the coach is expected to perform miracles. Ironically, the team that fared so badly in Cape Town was better prepared than most.
They played Swaziland at home and away in an 1999 African junior championship qualifier and travelled to New Zealand, where they finished second behind the United States in a five-nation tournament.
While Oliphant was busy blaming everyone except the short-sighted officials who consider a week a long time and a month eternity, director of coaching Horst Kriete was being a little more honest.
“The problem is that the youngsters are not playing regularly compared with their peers in other parts like West Africa. In Europe, young footballers know and understand each other because they always play together.” Precisely, Herr Horst. The Safa way is to create instant fixtures, instant squads, instant teams and instant coaches. However, they are fast discovering that instant success takes a little longer.