When coach Stuart Baxter on Wednesday reveals the Bafana Bafana squad for next Saturday’s Nelson Mandela Cup game against Senegal in Port Elizabeth, the decision whether to include Orlando Pirates’ mercurial midfielder Benedict Vilakazi will be his and his alone.
Baxter confirmed this on Tuesday when he revealed he had received no directive from the South African Football Association (Safa) on whether Vilakazi, who is currently on bail pending a rape charge, should be considered for the national team in the interim.
Vilakazi was deprived of the Pirates captaincy pending his ongoing court case and left out of the key African Nations Cup qualifying game against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Durban last month.
”I left Vilakazi out of the team against the DRC,” explained Baxter, ”because he was in the midst of court proceedings at the time and hardly in the right frame of mind to tackle a vital international soccer fixture at the time.
”But there is also the moral issue involved,” added the Bafana coach, ”and I will have to give a lot of thought in making my decision for the Senegal game because I have heard nothing from Safa on how to approach the issue of whether to consider him or not.”
When England internationals Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were charged with committing grievous bodily harm several years ago, the English Football Association immediately announced it was inappropriate that either player should be considered for international duty pending the conclusion of the controversial case in Leeds.
More recently, however, a number of high-profiled, world-class players, including Manchester United’s Christiano Ronaldo and Arsenal’s Robin van Persie, have been charged with rape and the Portuguese and Dutch football associations have yet to take any stand on the matter.
Safa CEO Raymond Hack was on Wednesday unavailable for comment on the Vilakazi issue and with Baxter receiving no clarification either, the Bafana coach finds himself thrust between the devil and the deep blue sea in making a decision. — Sapa