South African football is likely to introduce a cricket-style selection committee to help with the choosing of players for the national team. This is one of the key recommendations in technical committee head Sturu Pasiya’s chairperson’s report that will be tabled on Monday when the South African Football Association (Safa) national executive meets to map the way forward for the dysfunctional Bafana Bafana.
Taking its cue from cricket, the motivation behind this recommendation is to ensure that football establishes a brains trust to ensure that the best players are considered for the national team.
The only time Safa had a selection think tank was when Clive Barker was in charge in 1996, the year South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations at the first attempt following many years of isolation from international sport. Peter Nyama, Jomo Sono, Budgie Bryne and Mike Makaab formed the group.
People who have seen the report say it further recommends that the different national teams be coordinated, with the Bafana Bafana coach playing a senior role.
Details of how this selection team will work are still sketchy. When former coach Stuart Baxter tried the system, he was accused of interfering in other people’s jobs.
A senior Safa official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday’s meeting will be a tense affair. Axed coach Ted Dumitru’s own technical report says South Africa is well behind schedule for the 2010 World Cup and suggests as a matter of urgency that structures be put in place that include the appointment of a permanent coach. Dumitru and his camp are pushing for a local person to fill this role.
Pasiya’s group, who are rumoured to be in favour of a foreigner, although Pasiya denied this, argue that the appointment of a coach should be shelved until after this year’s World Cup in Germany.
”The best coaches in the world at the moment are contracted to either clubs or national teams. It is a big mistake … we are jumping to 2010 when there are other things to consider at the moment. We must focus at the moment at doing well in all other coming major competitions, like the Olympics, the next African Nations Cup,” notes Pasiya in his report.
Safa president Molefi Oliphant was recently quoted as saying he is in favour of a temporary appointment.
Dumitru and Pasiya are said not to be on speaking terms since Pasiya chased Dumitru and Simon Ngomane from a technical committee meeting two Sundays ago.
According to Stoppa Mabula, the Griqualand West region secretary who is a member of the technical committee and took minutes at the committee’s meetings, Dumitru was upset that Pasiya would not allow him and Ngomane to contribute to discussion of his report when he presented it. As a result the Romanian-born coach refused to send his comments on the report after it was e-mailed to him following its presentation in his absence.
The two have since communicated via Mabula. Mabula said he had tried to resolve the matter, but failed: ”I talked to Sturu of Ted’s dissatisfaction and his reply was that if Ted has any problems with him, he must talk to him. I relayed the message to Ted. I thought we could resolve the matter before the national executive meeting on Monday.”
Mabula said it was likely that the next coach would be local. ”The mood is that most people seem to be ready for a local guy.” The names being bandied about include Khabo Zondo, Pitso Mosimane, who Dumitru believes should be allowed to continue to be associated with the national team, and the under-23 coach, Steve Komphela. The argument is that although they are all inexperienced they have shown a lot of potential and, given the correct support structures, they could do well.
The desire to bring in Komphela in a more senior role stems from the suggestion that there must be a synergy between the different national teams to allow for continuity.
Pasiya says a selection committee, whatever its size, should include a minimum of four senior coaches, ”who will assist in the appointment of a new person and understand the culture and style of play in the country”.
The other areas of contention between Dumitru and Pasiya are that when Dumitru took over he made drastic changes to Bafana Bafana. Apart from Ricardo Katza, Benni McCarthy, Sibusiso Zuma and Siyabonga Nomvethe, Dumitru’s squad for last month’s Cup of Nations in Egypt was made up mainly of new caps.
Those close to Dumitru say the coach is miffed that Pasiya is now raising objections to his selections when none of the technical committee people voiced disquiet with the squad when it was announced in December.
Pasiya’s report is said to contain the phrase, ”never change a winning team”, and further questions Dumitru’s judgement in taking injured players to the tournament. Although Dumitru’s report states that Nkosinathi Nhleko did not play because, ”he was plagued by injuries”, it does not elaborate on the injuries or explain why the player was selected.
The outcome of Monday’s meeting will be keenly watched by sponsors.
Monde Africa, of SAB Miller, said his company will only comment once it has received feedback from Safa. However, he mentioned that sponsors were deeply concerned about the poor performance of the national team and he hoped that financial backers would be allowed to play an active role in coming up with solutions for Safa.
”We are thinking along the lines of creating a sponsors’ forum where we can contribute on how things can be done; where we can engage Safa on key issues. Our aim is to try and provide support on skills exchange where they battle.”
Dumitru this week denied that he had singled out McCarthy for blame. ”He is not singled out. He joined the squad with bad recollections of what happened to him before. Every time there was talk about money, Benni’s name was always there. He did not come to me on the first day and tell me that ‘if these people don’t do this or that I am not interested’.”
Dumitru responded to Safa CEO Raymond Hack’s claims that the coach received all the technical documents from Baxter, saying: ”He never read those reports. There was no technical information related to individual players and their performances, there was nothing about the team’s performance.”
On the issue of Payisa not being happy with his report, Dumitru said: ”Who is he not to be happy? The chairman is bound by the decision of the technical committee, it is a collective decision — otherwise all of us can go out individually and say this is what can be done.”