New Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana passed his first test in charge of the national squad when he put his foot down and decided to withdraw troublesome striker Benni McCarthy from next month’s four 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying matches. Santana and his technical team met with the temperamental Blackburn Rovers striker on Wednesday afternoon.
New Bafana Bafana coach Brazilian Joel Santana has not come to South Africa on a safari. At his first press conference at Johannesburg’s Safa House on Monday, he spelt out what he hoped to achieve during the 30 months that he will be in charge of the national team. ”I will do my talking on the training pitch,” he said.
Bafana Bafana’s new coach, Joel Santana, faced a scrum of media photographers when he arrived on Sunday at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo airport. It took Santana’s South African Police Service escort less than a minute to whisk Santana out of the airport and into his car en route to his hotel.
The South African economy could see a turnover in excess of R40-billion during the Soccer World Cup finals, which kick off at the new Soccer City in Johannesburg in June 2010. In an interview on Wednesday, chairperson of the 2010 local organising committee Irvin Khoza was upbeat that South Africa will host the best World Cup in history.
Come May 6, officials from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality are confident that they will leave the South African Football Association smiling after world football governing body Fifa and the 2010 local organising committee agree that their stadium will be able to host matches for the 2009 Confederations Cup.
In the samba spirit that the South African Football Association seems to have been seized by, and to welcome Joel Santana, the Brazilian coach, South Africans now have an opportunity to convert their names to Brazilian ones. After all, one Brazilian turn deserves another.
Of all the commendations that new Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana has to his credit is that he has coached the world’s best-supported team. He will have to accentuate this point as he has little else, other than the endorsement of his predecessor, to show why he should be entrusted with the job.
The South African Football Association (Safa) has finally confirmed the appointment of Joel Santana as coach of Bafana Bafana, following the resignation of Carlos Alberto Parreira on Monday. The worst-kept secret in local soccer was confirmed in a press release from the body on Wednesday.
South Africa will wait to finalise a contract with their new coach before officially announcing his appointment, the South African Football Association’s CEO said on Wednesday. ”We expect everything to be in place with all contractual and legal obligations sorted out by May 4,” Raymond Hack told local radio.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira is expected to announce his resignation at a press conference in Johannesburg on Monday, and speculation is rife about a possible successor, with big names such as Jose Mourinho and former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson in the mix.
Carlos Alberto Parreira’s uncertain future as South Africa coach will be made clear on Monday, the South African Football Association (Safa) said on Saturday. ”We will make a statement after an executive committee meeting,” Safa CEO Raymond Hack said. The announcement follows in the wake of reports he planned to resign to return to Brazil.
The South African Football Association held talks with national team coach Carlos Alberto Parreira on Friday amid reports the Brazilian was about to quit and return home. Safa and 2010 World Cup organising officials said a meeting with Parreira was under way but gave no details of its content.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup finals will do wonders to promote harmony and bring white soccer fans back to the game. In an interview on Tuesday, Premier Soccer League (PSL) CEO Kjetil Siem said South Africa will reap enormous benefits, both on and off the field, during and after the 2010 world showpiece.
Soccer players selected for the national team should be directly contracted by the South African Football Association, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday. This would allow coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to work full-time for two years in preparing a winning team for 2010.
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/ 15 February 2008
Bafana Bafana might have failed to make it past the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament in Ghana, but Enock Molefe, the assistant referee in the Afcon final between Egypt and Cameroon last Sunday, flew the South African flag high with his unimpeachable calls to the very last minute of the match.
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/ 8 February 2008
The Confederation of African Football and the Ghanaian local organising committee should apologise for using the old South African flag on Africa Cup of Nations posters, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Friday. The YCL said it was ”flabbergasted” and ”despises” the posters put up in Ghana, symbolising South Africa but sporting the old flag.
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/ 18 December 2007
Witwatersrand University has recently been accredited as a Fifa Centre of Medical Excellence to cater for soccer players in need of medical care, the university said on Tuesday. The Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the university would ensure that players received expert medical care and advice.
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/ 7 December 2007
Problem-plagued Mamelodi Sundowns on Friday announced that executive director Afzal Khan will be leaving the club in the wake of the protracted dispute in which Venezuelan international striker Jose Torrelaba alleged his signature had been forged on a document confirming the renewal of his contract with the club.
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/ 6 December 2007
Blackburn manager Mark Hughes has hit back at suggestions that the Premiership club played a part in Benni McCarthy’s surprise omission from South Africa’s squad for next month’s African Cup of Nations. McCarthy (30) had looked set to be a certainty in Carlos Alberto Parreira’s plans for the tournament, which starts in Ghana on January 20.
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/ 12 November 2007
I will not hold it against you if you read this and think it is about football. But it is not. Last week the Premier Soccer League’s board of governors decided to pay some of their number a once-off R70-million gratuity, with luck ending months of speculation over payments to individuals instrumental in getting football’s sponsorship to top the R1-billion mark.
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/ 7 November 2007
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has called for common sense to prevail in the quest to build a winning team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Brazilian named two squads for games against the United States and Canada — but due to the Premier Soccer League schedule, the local players he selected will arrive late for training.
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/ 15 October 2007
What South African soccer officials had naively viewed as a formality on Sunday turned into failure as Amaglug-glug went down 3-1 to Ghana’s Black Meteors at the Elwak Stadium in Accra and surrendered all hope of qualifying for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
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/ 13 October 2007
”Don’t be alarmed,” was the instant, understandable response from Bafana Bafana media officer Sifiso Cele on Friday after he announced that striking kingpin Benni McCarthy would only be joining the squad 48 hours before the game against world champions Italy in Siena on Wednesday.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup is an opportunity to create a new image for Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Thabo Mbeki on Friday. The two leaders met at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where Mbeki hosted Merkel for talks as part of her official state visit to South Africa.
By now Finance Minister Trevor Manuel must be conceding — privately — his allegation that Absa corruptly won the right to use its name for the premiership championship was as hasty as it was uninformed. OnTuesday, the Premier Soccer League dismissed out of hand that some of its executive committee members had received or stood to receive a 10% commission.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) has expressed disappointment with Finance Minister Trevor Manuel for involving himself in its affairs and has written to Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, asking him to intervene, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
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/ 27 September 2007
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has criticised the South African soccer authorities for not showing more concern in his quest to shape up his team for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”We are hosting the World Cup in two-and-a-half years and people don’t seem to understand the urgency in preparing the team for it,” said Parreira.
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/ 8 September 2007
Anyone with an intimate knowledge of the marauding packs of Western Province and the Sharks will know why groundsman Julian Barnard said on Friday his staff would be working all night in order to get the Newlands Stadium pitch into shape for Bafana Bafana’s African Nations Cup qualifying game against Zambia.
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/ 7 September 2007
It is 4.45pm at Meadowlands High School in Soweto. On the football field five different teams from around the area gather to prepare for their next league match. Two teams are using the partly grassed and already dusty field. On the sidelines there are about 20 players from Mighty Solutions FC.
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/ 5 September 2007
With the stealth of a covert James Bond operation, the South African Football Association on Tuesday successfully ”smuggled” Benni McCarthy into the country for his first game for Bafana Bafana in 19 months. He will play in the African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium on Sunday.
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/ 4 September 2007
Mamelodi Sundowns player Mpho Gift Leremi, who died in a car accident on Monday night, would have been a star in 2010, the minister of sport said on Tuesday. ”There is no doubt that Gift formed part of a nucleus of the Bafana Bafana plans for the 2010 Fifa World Cup establishment,” Makhenkesi Stofile said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
Privileged to the end, the grand re-entry of Benni McCarthy into the Bafana Bafana squad for Sunday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium will materialise on Wednesday — a day after the remaining South African players are due to be ensconced in their Cape Town camp.