While the South African Football Association (Safa) continued to fiddle over the hot-potato issue of Benni McCarthy, Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira threw down the gauntlet and selected him for the African Nations Cup qualifier against Chad on June 2.
”My job is to select the strongest possible Bafana squad,” said the forthright former Brazil World Cup coach while releasing the names of 19 players for the Durban game, ”and it is inconceivable I could leave out a player who is currently featuring as one of the top scorers in the European leagues.
”If there are problems relating to Benni McCarthy,” added Parreira, ”and they are not solved, or if he declines to play, I have done my job in a professional manner by selecting him until I am informed I should do otherwise.”
And dark, brooding problems there certainly are on the horizon, with the enigmatic Blackburn Rovers striker declaring in a TV interview while in Cape Town on Wednesday that he would not play for Bafana until a number of issues had been sorted out.
One such matter is a demand for a public apology from Safa vice-president Mubarak Mohammed, who acted as head of the South African delegation in Egypt during last year’s ill-fated African Nations Cup campaign — when McCarthy last played for Bafana and was the subject of scathing criticism from Mubarak.
”I believe I have done a good job for my country over the years,” said McCarthy meaningfully, ”but when Bafana has a problem, it’s always Benni McCarthy’s fault. This kind of unfair attitude must change before I agree to play for the national team again.”
What Parreira has done, therefore, is to rightly bring the lingering McCarthy controversy to a head — and force Safa to take the bull by the horns and come up with some kind of finality on the issue.
Apart from the McCarthy brouhaha, the Bafana squad to play the 133rd, mediocre-ranked Chad is uniformly predictable, although it was stated Steven Pienaar and Siyabonga Nkosi were not considered because of injury — and Parreira confirmed that the talented Pienaar was unlikely to be fit as well for the more critical away game against Congo later in June.
Also, a number of players have still to confirm their availability. — Sapa
Bafana Squad:
Goalkeepers: Rowen Fernandez (Kaizer Chiefs — joining Armenia Bielefeld, Germany), Calvin Marlin (Mamelodi Sundowns).
Defenders: Aaron Mokoena (Blackburn Rovers, England), Nasief Morris (Panathinaikos, Greece), Ricardo Katza (SuperSport United), Cyril Nzama (Kaizer Chiefs), Benson Mhlongo (Mamelodi Sundowns),
Vuyo Mere (Mamelodi Sundowns), Bradley Carnell (Karlsruhe, Germany).
Midfielders: Delron Buckley (FC Basle, Switzerland), Elrio van Heerden (Club Brugge, Belgium), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan, Russia), Godfrey Sapula (Mamelodi Sundowns), Surprise Moriri (Mamelodi Sundowns), Benedict Vilakazi (Orlando Pirates).
Strikers: Siyabonga Nomvete (Aalborg, Denmark), Thembinkosi Fanteni (Ajax Cape Town), Sibusiso Zuma (Arminia Bielefeld, Germany), Benni McCarthy (Blackburn Rovers, England).