South African Football Association (Safa) chief operations officer and acting CEO Albert Mokoena did the unthinkable this week by summoning the media to talk about the problems at Safa. Mokoena said that Safa had messed up ”big time” by sacking Bafana Bafana’s coach just before they left for the African Cup of Nations tournament in Tunisia.
Safa’s executive committee is scheduled to meet on March 6 to decide how it is going to go about hiring a new coach. Mokoena said 12 people have shown interest in the job — one is from Africa and the rest are from Europe. Another item up for discussion at the meeting is Irvin Khoza’s resignation from the vice-presidency of Safa.
Mokoena said the public has a right to feel angry about the state of soccer in South Africa because, in a sense, they are also ”owners” of the game. Mokeoena also expressed concerned about Safa’s regional structures because they have not yet reported how they spent their annual grants of R180 000.
Turning to women’s soccer, Mokoena said his first task will be to ensure that Banyana Banyana qualify for the Olympics Games in Athens later this year. He said Safa is also considering establishing a women’s premier soccer league. The women’s Nations Cup will now be hosted by South Africa in September after Angola said it could not host the tournament.
On the issue of players retiring from soccer and the country-versus-club issue, Mokoena said his association is looking at formulating a policy and will involve all stakeholders in the process. Mokoena admitted that the state of soccer in South Africa leaves much to be desired. He said this is killing soccer in South Africa and damaging the Bafana Bafana trademark.
Bafana Bafana will play Australia in a friendly at the end of March in London and will play against Cape Verde in a World Cup qualifying match on June 5. Here’s hoping that things are finally changing at the headquarters of South African soccer.