In a rare and frank public attack on the game’s administrators, businessman Tokyo Sexwale has warned that ”football leadership has to go back to the drawing board”.
”The battle is hard for Bafana Bafana; we are battling out there. It is a hard thing that we are going to the World Cup without Bafana Bafana,” the former premier of Gauteng said during a brief address at the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) annual awards dinner this week.
Sexwale is a benefactor of the Mvela League — the domestic first division — and a member of the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 World Cup.
There is no guessing as to the reason for these scathing remarks. Last week the national team, under the guidance of stand-in coach Pitso Mosimane, were humiliated by lowly ranked Botswana when they were knocked out of the regional Council of Southern African Football Association tournament, the Cosafa Cup. Botswana is 50 places below South Africa in the world rankings.
Critics were aghast at the latest Bafana performances, though officials optimistically argue that they are still in the rebuilding process.
This year’s PSL function was more than just a celebration. It was a confirmation that after many years football has finally realised its market value and achieved its goal of being recognised as the most popular sport in the country.
In the words of outgoing PSL CEO Trevor Phillips, the professional game has at last managed to build a financially solid business.
While Phillips believes that he leaves behind an organisation that ”is in a strong position and has matured a great deal”, he, like Sexwale, warned that unless the game develops firm structures it will be difficult to identify and prescribe exact remedies for the malaise surrounding the national team.
He said there are numerous questions football administrators have to address. Chief among them are: What do we want South African football to be? What do we want the world to associate with South Africa? What picture is conjured when we talk about the game in this country?
In the absence of concrete structures and clear guidelines, Phillips said, it will not be easy to navigate the way forward. He admonished earnestly that ”administrators should stop allowing self-interests to stand in the way of important issues”.
Phillips, who is due to retire at the end of November, made his remarks to a packed audience that included Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Dikgang Moseneke.
While the national team is floundering, it remains unclear when exactly the South African Football Association (Safa) technical committee, which is tasked with finding a new Bafana Bafana coach, will recommend a name to the organisation’s national executive committee.
The announcement of a foreign name is expected in the next two weeks. Sources close to the technical committee say Brazil’s current coach, Carlos Parreira, remains the top contender for the job ahead of his fellow countryman, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who recently turned down the post of England manager.
Head of the technical committee Sturu Pasiya returned to the country this week following his forays in Europe, where it is reliably learned he met up with Parreira. The Brazilian was in Switzerland with his World Cup squad for medical tests and check-ups.
This was the first formal meeting between the front-runner and Pasiya, and insiders told the Mail & Guardian that so far there is no indication from Parreira that he is not interested in the Bafana post. Pasiya’s mission on this trip was ”firstly, to make one-on-one contact and, secondly, to arrange for a presentation if the need arises”.
Apparently one of the chief concerns of several international coaches, and what could scare away the top candidates, is the lack of, or collapse of, our development structures. Most of the international coaches approached asked one key question. That was about youth programmes and centres. Are they up to international standards?
Recently, KickOff magazine exposed the imminent collapse of the School of Excellence, which was for a long time a flagship for youth development in the country and that has caused a lot of jitters locally and internationally.
Therefore, what may dissuade international coaches is the fear of failure in the absence of concrete structures on the ground.