NAWAAL DEANE & OWN CORRERSPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.15am.
EMBATTLED coach Trott Moloto will almost certainly lead Bafana Bafana when they take on Zimbabwe in a vital World Cup qualifier next month, despite losing his job as national coach on Monday.
Moloto’s job has been hanging by a thread for the past three weeks and on Monday he accepted a demotion to to senior assistant coach.
Safa officials said that Moloto will still be in charge until a new coach has been announced.
Moloto succeeded Frenchman Philippe Troussier as Bafana coach in 1998 and reasonable results have not spared him from constant criticism for tactical naivete.
Three coaches have been linked to taking over the reins at Bafana, with former World Cup winning coach Carlos Pareira of Brazil the favourite to scoop the job from Dutch pair Jo Bonfrere and Clemens Westerhof.
“We are speaking to Clemens Westerhof, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Jo Bonfrere to take over the coaching position and hope to announce the name of the new coach soon,” Safa boss Molefi Oliphant confirmed.
Safa might find it difficult to maintain the foreign coaches, with Parreira asking for a monthly salary of R300000, while Westerhof’s usual fee is said to be in the region of R200000.
According to Safa, the new coach will only be announced after the Zimbabwe qualifier, giving Moloto one last chance to make amends for a recent spate of poor results.
Moloto accepted his new role as assistant coach under Safa’s new coaching policy based on the success of similar structures overseas.
“The policy is that there will be a number one coach and he will be helped by a senior assistant coach, a goalkeeping coach and another assistant coach, likely to be filled by a former national player which fits into our guidelines,” Oliphant said.
The goalkeeping post and the second assistant coach post have not yet been filled, but the names bandied around include the likes of Steve Komphela, Neil Tovey and John “Shoes” Mosheou.
Moloto’s coaching ability has been under fire recently since a series of horrific results in the Nike Cup, where Bafana conceded 10 goals in three matches, losing to the United States, Mexico and the Republic of Ireland.
Moloto has named a 31-man provisional squad for the Zimbabwe qualifier, and it will be trimmed to 18 this week.