With former Brazilian national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira due in the country on Friday to launch what has been hailed a new dawn for Bafana Bafana, everything at the South African Football Association (Safa) remains in disarray.
Parreira is due to launch South Africa’s bid to regain a measure of respect in international soccer with a three-day training camp from February 5 to 7.
But 48 hours before the arrival of the new Bafana coach, Safa officials were adamant they had no knowledge as to which players would be present at the camp — and worse still, who and how they would be selected.
It is inconceivable that Parreira, with his limited knowledge of South African players, is in a position at this juncture to select the 30 players who are reputed to be earmarked for the camp without some input of local advice and expertise.
But Safa CEO Raymond Hack said he had no knowledge as to who would be selecting the players for the camp and referred the matter to Safa director of international affairs Barney Kujane.
Kujane, for his part, claimed to be as much in the dark as Hack on the issue of selecting players for Parreira’s proposed camp.
And while former interim Bafana coaches Pitso Mosimane and Khabo Zondo — who have been earmarked to act as part-time assistants to Parreira — would seem the logical choices to guide the Brazilian in his choice of players, both revealed they had not been consulted on the selection of the squad.
Hack, in addition, was not able to confirm the venue for the Bafana camp, although he suggested it would, more than likely, be in Johannesburg.
A Safa executive meeting on Thursday — strangely a day before Parreira’s arrival — might finally get down to the business of making decisions that should have been implemented weeks ago.
Another delicate issue centres round the issue of which overseas-based players will be present at the camp, particularly as many of them might only be able to be present for one of the three proposed days.
And, in addition, it is mandatory for clubs to be informed by Safa a matter of 14 days before player call-ups that the players are required for international duty.
Hack and Kujane, however, claim they have no knowledge of these call-ups — and, if they have not been made at this point, it is already too late.
Meanwhile, it has been hinted Parreira will belatedly announce the squad on February 1 — a mere four days before the camp is due to commence. — Sapa