/ 25 June 2010

Sono: Bafana could have done better

Sono: Bafana Could Have Done Better

Bafana Bafana could have fared better in the 2010 World Cup given the support the team received before the tournament, former national coach Jomo Sono said on Friday.

“I strongly believe we could have done better with the preparations we put in and the money we put in,” he told journalists at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

“I’ve never seen Bafana Bafana being supported like this.”

Sono would have preferred if Bafana Bafana, as the host nation, had gone further in the tournament, but was proud the national side beat France in its last match.

He said sometimes African teams tended to play more “individually” than as a collective.

“There are too many individual players who want to play for themselves instead of for the team as a whole.”

Sono said that when he played football, players were passionate about the sport, despite the difficult political environment in which they played.

Asked whether players in the country displayed the same level of passion on the field today, he said: “Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t … today there is a lot more money involved.”

Witnessing the World Cup in South Africa was “emotional” for Sono.

“Sometimes you wish you were born a little later so you can participate … [the] World Cup has united all of us black and white.

“The legacy which the World Cup will leave will live forever.”

Sono was not interested in returning to coach the home team and believed someone younger would be more fitting.

“I would not consider going back. I had my time … I t would be advisable to get somebody younger in South Africa.”

He would “look at” SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt and assistant Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane to replace Carlos Alberto Parreira, but did not punt anybody in particular.

Answering a question about why there were so few African coaches, Sono said it was important that coaches brought in from foreign countries “empower our people”.

The experience brought by these coaches should be passed on to their staff, who should preferably be from the country they were coaching.

Senegalese-born French former footballer Patrick Vieira said big players from the continent tended to steer away from coaching once retired to follow other pursuits.

“As Africans, it is very important to come back to coaching,” he said.

Vieira said most African teams had represented the continent well.

Zambian former footballer and member of Fifa’s technical study group Kalusha Bwalya said African teams would have to go back to the drawing board and look again at the way teams prepared for the tournament.

The way the continent fared was “humbling” and a “wake-up call”.

“Sometimes we want to play the name instead of the man in form,” he said. — Sapa