Dr Danny Jordaan addresses The SAFCA symposium

The Safa President, Dr Danny Jordaan, gate-crashed the SAFCA session and went for the jugular. What makes the man irresistible is his knowledge and use of data and statistics. Straight away, he reminded the coaches how the first competitive games of the new seasons were decided on penalties after 0-0 draws.

The Under-21 championship in Mafikeng, the Orlando Pirates-Kaizer Chiefs Carling Black Label match, the ABC Motsepe play-offs, in Durban, some of the MTN quarter-finals and many others including the Under 17 and 20 trips to North and West Africa proved the lads fired blanks.

Putting it into perspective, he mentioned Xavi’s pass rate of 98 % compared to South Africa’s best at 40 %, mentioning that opponents needed not to fight for the ball as it always came back to them without a fight. Likewise, he pointed out that Wayne Rooney scored 4 goals with every 6 attempts while local coaches informed him their best strikers only scored on their 18^th attempt in South Africa.

The frank talking boss pointed out that Germany concluded their 2004 European championship in the first round and then lifted the Fifa World Cup in 2014. That planning proved that the development element of coaches and players to bounce back from disaster had no substitute. 

This point was made in reference to the mandate of the new Bafana Bafana coach, Ephraim Shakes Mashaba, whose job priority is qualification to the 2018 Russia Fifa World Cup and the qualification to compete to win the 2022 Qatar Fifa World Cup.

The country aimed at a regular top 3 position in Africa and top 10 (to 20) in the world Fifa ranking. Coaches were discouraged from shortcuts but encouraged to work for the good of the game of South Africa.

Given the 51 million South Africans, 3 million registered football players fell short of the expected 10 % of the population. Coaches needed to put more effort to produce more players of very high quality. He bemoaned apartheid traits in schools that still saw football as a black man sport while promoting rugby and cricket, pointing out that Herschele Gibbs went into high school as a national Under 17 footballer and came out a cricketer, as did Molefe Oliphant’s son who became a rugby player.

Jordaan outlined the many achievement concluded in the short term so far and his plans in the long term, including building nine provincial academies and artificial turfs, starting in KwaZulu Natal within weeks. A national women league will commence in the coming seasons, among the prominent plans. His National Executive Committee will be reduced from 36 to 18 soon.

He mention the deals with Siyaya and SABC will net Safa R200 million, almost in line with cricket (R250 million) and rugby (R350 million), up from R50 million. He reminded all that the game used to benefit R100 000.00 only while R40 million was enjoyed by other sports with less viewership.

He mummed an idea that some countries funded private academies following a national agenda and philosophy. ‘Don’t talk about us, talk to us’, he concluded.

Ephraim Shakes Mashaba is Bafana Bafana Coach. Hit or Miss?

The SAFA House is occupied by people who take the country, their jobs and the national team very seriously. Black or white, foreign or not, many thought this had no bearing on the choice of the South African national team coach. It mattered a lot. South Africa needed to recapture its football soul and play diski the only we know how.

The previous coach, Gordon Igesund did a very good job for the team after he took over from Pitso Mosimane. Danny Jordaan came to lead the national association that had taken a direction to win now and at all costs. He made it his mission to development structures from the bottom, and to implement a possibly less popular youth policy.

By looking into the future, Jordaan seemed to pull the plug off the reasonably successful tenure of GI. Regardless of who led Bafana at that point in time, they would not add any value to the team and their play. An overhaul seemed harsh but it was necessary. The team could not score goals as the current crop of players lacked basic technique of movement with and without the ball as well as shooting.

Now that Shakes Mashaba is back after a few flirts with the senior team in the last decade, SAFA made a brave functional choice in choosing the current Under-20. After that educated choice, the national association has to close one yawning and serious gap now. They need to forget about the Kaizer Chiefs’ Stuart Baxter and hire Gordon Igesund as the Technical Director of SAFA. Many confuse this post to one connected to the national team.

This post is a FIFA requirement for general football development matters. Merging GI’s experience and progress with Bafana and the new regime of Mashaba’s roadmap, the two will have a common destination. There can never be a better combination, as Mashaba will have nothing to change from GI’s way of playing.

What ESM brings to the team is fresh, younger and motivated set of players who have not tasted too much disappointment or have been called ‘a bunch of losers’. As a national youth team coach, many of the players under his wing already aspire to don the senior team jerseys. The GI mandate should be delivering technically mature players from the grassroots.

In my article regarding development structures, I wondered if there was a system to supply these tournaments with well-coached layers. I questioned support for the players ineligible for the next tournament. A man of GI’s calibre will be wary of that and with the SAFA President’s idea of developing the game from bottom, South Africa’s game is going places.

The results may not be come straight away, but in two to six years, there will be an obvious direction of things. Not that Shakes is the best coach in the country, but his selection speaks volume of the intentions of the organisation. There are ample structures to support the man at the helm. This is the best choice of coach by the National Executive Committee of SAFA.