The celebration of South Africa’s 10-year-old democracy will not resonate in soccer the way things are now.
The South African under-23 squad are on tenterhooks after their defeat by Zambia: they won’t be going to the Olympics in Athens if Zambia, Algeria or Ghana lose their Olympic qualifiers.
As if that was not a big enough blow to soccer, now comes the seven-day suspension of national coach Shakes Mashaba on the eve of the biggest soccer tournament in Africa, the Nations Cup.
We all hoped the Nations Cup in Tunisia would be our trump card to secure the 2010 World Cup (the decision will be announced in May).
But seemingly everything has gone wrong.
Mashaba’s suspension comes on the heels of the recent withdrawals from the national team of Benni McCarthy, Mark Fish and the seemingly uncontactable Quinton Fortune.
The suspended coach is now at the mercy of these players. If he fails to get them on board for the Tunisia tournament, he will be relieved of his duties permanently.
Mashaba is known not to be a fan of these players, who at times have refused to play for their country. He now has to realise that their inclusion in the team will not be an effort to regain the Nations Cup, but to do a public relations job, highlighting how far we have come and advancing the South African World Cup bid.
No soccer-loving supporter can now believe that we still have a hope of winning the Nations Cup. The damage is far too great to be repaired in the space of just two weeks.
Team morale must be at its lowest with some of the players chosen in the first squad wondering if they will still be part of the team bound for Tunisia — if the impossible happens and McCarthy, Fish and Fortune are recalled, then three players already chosen for the squad will have to be withdrawn.
Mashaba — if he is a man of principle — will have to do the honourable thing and resign, for the task of having to tell three players to make way for the three overseas players will just be too daunting. He will lose respect among other players and have no control over these three players called up to save his job.
The predicament in which the national team find themselves is not strange to them. They have been down this road several times. After Clive Barker managed to win the Nations Cup in 1996 and gain automatic qualification for the 1998 Nations Cup (and at the same time qualified for the World Cup) he was dropped as coach on the eve of the Nations Cup tournament.
Jomo Sono took up the challenge, only to lose the Nations Cup, and then he was dropped.
Phillip Trousier was then appointed to take the team to the France 1998 World Cup, but on his return he was fired, giving way to Trott Moloto.
Moloto took the team to the 2000 Nations Cup but failed to win it and was dropped.
In came Carlos Quieroz, who qualified South Africa for the 2002 Nations Cup and World Cup, but on his return from the Nations Cup after a dismal performance he was dropped. In came Sono, and now we are back to square one.
Who will coach Bafana Bafana in the 2004 Nations Cup in such a short space of time?
The damage is now irreversible. The world knows that South Africa seems to have no control over its own destiny, and this has dented our chances of winning the World Cup bid.
We are going to the Nations Cup this year only to make an impression, not to win. The road to Athens is filled with many obstacles, but there remains a glimmer of hope — that of hosting the World Cup.