Leeds United’s heartless bid to end the record-breaking international career of Lucas Radebe might yet be foiled.
The South African Football Association’s (Safa) deeply concerned chief executive Danny Jordaan said this week: ”Lucas has said Saturday’s game against Burkina Faso must be his last for South Africa, but I believe something can still be done. I did not want to disturb preparations for the game, but I will be sorting this out as soon as I can.”
Radebe appears to have been forced into quitting his role as South Africa captain by David O’Leary. The Leeds manager, who always made himself available for the Republic of Ireland during his own record-breaking career at Arsenal, said: ”The question people should ask the likes of Lucas is where does their bread and butter come from? Any club that does well builds their success in domestic competitions. It brings money in to allow clubs to pay these big wages. So should players then be allowed to take off when it suits them?”
Many experts in the game were furious at O’Leary’s stance — but Jordaan insists: ”This is not a club-versus-country battle, it is certainly not South Africa versus Leeds. It’s a problem with the system. This week, all the African players in Europe have to return home to play World Cup qualifiers, next week all the Oceania players have to go back for their games. Then the Latin Americans. But when the European qualifiers are played, all those players sit around, kicking their heels.
”I wrote to [world governing body] Fifa in 1998 about this, but they have not done enough. [Fifa boss] Sepp Blatter is attending Saturday’s game against Burkina Faso, and I will raise the matter with him then. I have not given up hope of a compromise. Lucas will be playing his 63rd game for us in Rustenburg, and we cannot afford to lose him. ”We have just broken into the top 20 of the Fifa rankings for the first time, and it is vital we have our captain. And let’s not forget, we also have Quinton Fortune at Manchester United and Shaun Bartlett and Mark Fish at Charlton. We can’t afford to lose all our Premiership players like this.”
For now, though, Radebe’s international future looks bleak. O’Leary and chair Peter Ridsdale told him that he could no longer make the regular 13-hour flights home for international games. Radebe will miss the FA Cup fourth round tie against Liverpool on Saturday — and the club, languishing in the lower half of the league, know they could soon be without centre half Jonathan Woodgate, who faces a court case, and £18-million signing Rio Ferdinand, who is injured.
Jordaan said: ”We had already come to an agreement that Radebe would only play in World Cup matches, but even that is proving troublesome. There is no question about the patriotism of Radebe. How can you question the patriotism of a man who has played 62 times for his country? We understand the economic reality for a player who earns the vast majority of his money from his club. I can understand Leeds’s concern but we want Radebe for the World Cup.”
Radebe was last year voted South Africa’s most popular sportsman and has been honoured by Fifa for his charity work. But O’Leary flatly refused to release him for the Burkina Faso game. Radebe flew out admitting: ”I had an opportunity to meet Ridsdale. He understands my predicamentand is very supportive of my position. I obviously realise the importance of my commitment to the club and he appreciates how hard a decision it is for me to withdraw from my international duties. ”What I would like to do now is to have the opportunity to meet with Jordaan and Safa and inform him and them personally of my decision.”
Radebe’s chances of playing again seem remote. The otherwise reasonable Ridsdale said: ”The game on Saturday is our biggest of the season. We pay our players’ wages yet we have lost our captain. We pay his entire salary. It’s not just his bread and butter but all three courses.”
