New wave of South African football

Few weeks ago, we wrote commending the Safa appointment of Shakes Mashaba as national team coach among other things. In that post, we commended the freshness of the minds and ideas coming from the Safa House, that people who are a little more serious about their jobs occupy the offices. We still maintain the fact that they are a ‘little’ more serious until further notice.

The barometer has been the results of the women junior and senior teams performing exceptional well, and then the men’s junior teams and senior teams elevating their performances. Of course, this article is triggered by the latest qualification by Amajimbos to the African championship after eliminating Egypt following that 2-2 draw in Cairo.

My hometown, by design or by default, carries a bad image that one morning I defend tooth and nail, and the next I concede. The ‘small town mentality’ has much more to do with accepting mediocrity than being in a small town. Safa House never accepted the status quo and believed in change of doing business. The national body’s character had taken a battering from the media and public. Scepticism of the global changes made by Danny Jordaan never deterred the national agenda to South Africanise football.

There are many items of great impact that I am not qualified to comment on, which prove that soon the country will take its rightful place in the football world. Having travelled the length and breadth of this very small planet, I sometimes felt ashamed to reveal where I come from. Just as I sometimes feel embarrassed to confess about my town origins, (and usually when driving in other provinces, one feels he can be forgiven for bad behaviour, after-all the number plates show), the landscape has considerably transformed our football image with the qualification of Amajita and Amajimbos to the African Youth Championships.   

Though my town is not a small town anymore, the mentalities do not show yet. Historical reasons have been given for the lack of desire to perform, or the increased secretive attitude and ‘pull him down’ syndrome. I think South Africans in generals are not yet mature to accept their small doses of success have been fluke. Many of the development programs have been events without follow up strategies. All people, South Africans or not, have allergic tendencies to new ways of thinking.

At this point, with the little success on the horizon, resting on our laurels is detrimental. A few years back, my young children were doing homework and one asked, ‘What are laurels?’ The other’s response underlined what society had come to accept as fact; ‘Something to rest on’. After embracing change, taking part in the processes and systems that brought about that change or participating in the programs that perpetuate that change seem to elude the best of us.

Many of the football problems still clung onto by the rich and elite South African football clubs, is the Europeanisation of the African game. That is subject for another day, but generally, this has only managed to give access to the Europeans to study and castrate our game. How, you may ask. We are made to play the way they can, in a way they can manage and handle. That is why Africa has not won the Fifa World Cup yet. Playing football to our strengths gives new problems for the world to solve.

I am not sure how Dr Jordaan came to the point of diagnosing the problem and then prescribe the antidote. In any case, if the effect of the treatment can be felt now, how so over a protracted length of time. One still has to see if the playing pattern of all the teams that have qualified for their respective championships follow a certain trend. That fruitful trend should determine a national playing philosophy of all national teams.

Coming back to my town, just organising people to come together is an uphill task. Yet there is dissatisfaction in terms of the benefits of football by those who think they have toiled and hassled hard enough. Few coaches tried to convince me they had development structures which produced national stars. Through interrogation, I discovered they found talented players who stayed in their teams until they moved to the Absa Premier League. It sounded arrogant pointing out why those players cannot pass or receive the ball today despite playing in the top league.

Further investigation revealed that the coaches were not aware of the Solidarity Mechanism or the Development Compensation (another subject for another day), because I questioned the state of their development teams that should have benefitted from the transfer of players. Many more will claim that national team players passed through their hands, yet there is nothing to show for it.

The nation has to hastily work on a pattern of play and all coaches must embrace, top to bottom. Players participating at all levels of the game must have worked on the single purpose in both attaching and defending duties. Unless there is unity of purpose in this regard, the gains and ground covered in these few examples of early success can be reversed. Few, to the detriment of the game, cannot promote the reluctance to change and their inability to tolerate and embrace change must never be fanned.

As the nation waits the much talked about Technical Director, (my guess is that too much thought is being put on the individual who will drive the agenda of playing football the way we enjoy to play) we have a duty to play football of value. Value in this regard, represents what an ordinary South African purports to be football. That is the only way to success. Our greatest clubs today are not convincing in their play and their play should be brought into line with the national agenda. Their development sides should be made to conform.

How feasible that project can be, will depend on the muscle of the mother body, so often forced to play second fiddle to their own child, the National Premier League. At least, with the record straight regarding the Multichoice Diski Challenge, normalcy reigned and will hopefully continue to.

For now, I keep wondering from which pot Shakes Mashaba, Molefi Ntseki and the other national team coaches drink. That is a new wave of South African football.

 

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.

Pitso won't let the sleeping dogs lie

Let's take interest in very interesting developments in South Africa where the national association fired a coach with a handsome handshake claimed to be around R5 million, his potential predecessors have been wildly drawn up as caretaker coach Steve Khompela and Moroka Swallows' Gordon Igesund.

And then, Rahman Gumbo was also caretaker coach after the suspension of alleged match fixing by Norman Mapeza. Unlike Pitso Mosimane of South Africa who went a winless 7 matches, the Zimbabwean coach is still to be hired and had been in charge of one match which he lost 0-1. Harare fans want him fired already.

If all women fired their husbands for being sterile after a single entry, divorce courts who be the most lucrative business. Taking the case of the two countries, theirs was a bachelor's party. Their one and only will be walking in the aisle in no time. How holy that matrimonial union will be is common knowledge. They all come and end the same way, like in Gumbo's case, before the honeymoon night is over.

Roger de Sa is the most qualified replacement for Mosimane, while media favourite, Gavin Hunt may feel he has a case after successes with Supersport United. He will have to enjoy following on Mosimane's foot-steps as he did at club level.

Knowing the South African Football Association, they have a novice Eastern European with a forged CV lined up. Their counterparts may be attempting to change their favourite beacon's name so as not to match the banned list records. The colonial mentality of SAFA embedded in race rivals the tribalistic ZIFA. The best part is that their recipes produce the same bread.

The long cycles of inactivity will be a bore to Hunt and Igesund and the 'tell it like it is' attitude of De Sa counts him out as the two parties are unofficial enemies. Admittedly, the temptation in the four-time PSL champion will be strong. Igesund is in his twilight coaching years. There may never be another opportunity, but his project with Moroka Swallows is unlikely to be compromised.

It is extremely hard trying to comprehend what the football administrators think, if they do. There is rarely a moment they pick the right candidates, even just for interviews. Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs promoted either development coaches or those with CVs claimed to be doctored for the purse. The arrival to the same point is guaranteed and the cycle will begin.

To spice up how brainy these fellows can be, just over a year ago, the Premier Leagues of the two countries announced with days that they intended to change their calenders and for exactly the opposite reasons. If the neighbours belonged to different time and weather zones, it would make sense. To make the point clear, to date, they both haven't moved an inch.

In any case, it was all about Mosimane, who is said to be taking legal action against SAFA for his unlawful dismissal.It may be on strong moral grounds or just crocodile tears, if the R5 million claimed he stands to benefit is a reality. If he strongly feels that way regardless of the fee he may get, he is a strong man and SAFA must keep him.

It is not every day that a man who knows what he is doing will fore-go that much money to embarrass himself. On the other hand, it is easy to assume that Mosimane did not put much effort in the job knowing what he stood to benefit. The legal action issue is to mud our faces and divert our thinking that he is a bitter man.

Given that he had two years left on his contract, or R9.6 million more to earn, he may be looking to get his loot, intact as it is and right now. It may be real that he is arguing over his record and it doesn't say much really.

After all is said and done, if anyone comes in touch with him, and he has banked the sack, just remind him how I wrote nicely about him over his tenure. I may not need my day job after that.

South African football such a shame.

South Africa football is one of mixed fortunes both literally and figuratively. The game is moneyed and success is scarce. Who is to blame? Let us start pointing fingers as usual.

I would love to look at the league and then the national team. There is no secrecy about the funding of the ABSA Premier League as it is bankrolled by one of the biggest money houses in Africa. ABSA pumps a cool sum as they do for the Rugby. Springboks are a leap ahead, naturally, as you know that it is a sport enjoyed by the majority of the people who have R18 billion at ABSA.

You should remember how the African majority race complained about SA Rugby being not black enough. ABSA were warned not to raise a voice because they will have R18 billion out of the door by noon. The bank 'shooshed'. That is politics and you know how dumb I am on the subject.

Calls from all foreign coaches who have come to South Africa as national team mentors have been that the league should depot all aliens and play the Kasi boy so as not to dilute style and give local jimbos more play time. That fell to deaf ears even to the Oliphants that you would expect to hear well low-frequency resonance given the big ear flaps.

The other issue especially articulated by Carlos Alberto Pereira was that of the reserve league. As noble as the suggestions are, they meet the standards of the association and the league, but club owners have a different agenda. If the locals do not give them the mileage they need to be on top, requesting for extra expenses running a reserve team is not business at all. Here, the game dies.

 My personal opinion has always been a COSAFA or CECAFA Champions league. Surely, the PSL can influence ABSA to fund the project. This gets Southern African teams enough international practise for the Africa Champions league and even help moderate players get international game time.

Supersport also pour huge sums into the game and they would benefit with a wider viewership. I understand they have arrangements with the league for a few appearances here and there, which is commendable, but they would increase the interest with Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs playing in Kampala, Dar es salaam or Kinshasa regularly. That exposure for the teams and the Superdiski will be healthy for business.

That will render the issue of getting less foreigners in South Africa and even in cases where that is not the case, it will build healthier relationships amongst the nations and their players. I would actual advocate for the Bosnian rules to apply in the region. 

The average national team of South Africa get a cold from the cough of the league, naturally. Bafana Bafana are struggling to be a noticeable African force, even at COSAFA level, pretending it is not so important sometimes. If the league be dead, they national team is rotten. 

Further from the bad quality from the league players, coach Pitso Mosimane called closer cooperation from all stakeholders to ensure the national team is thoroughly prepared for the their games. There is risk of failing to qualify for 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2014 Fifa World Cup starting in June this year. What am I talking about by saying risk? The team has not qualified for the current tournament, so it is actually more normal to fail to qualify.

Mosimane has failed to get Orlando Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows players recently for the 0-0 South Africa draw with Equatorial Guinea fielding five uncapped players in the starting line-up and handing three more rookies their maiden caps in the second half. That drama continued forcing the coach to call five more players to replace those called by their clubs.

At the earliest convenience, Pitso's head will be on the block for a poor job done. Really? The love for success at national level and our contribution to that are way parallel. Mosimane was quoted saying, "We need to look at how serious we all are about preparing Bafana for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournament that we are hosting, as well as the 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifiers that start in June." Knowing what we know, that is a long shot call and all I can do is wish him luck for both the cooperation he desires and keeping his job.

Bafana Bafana have never been good enough to be world beaters and gliding through luck in the earlier years gave the impression that the squad is world-class. The time to work for the results came and there were no answers.The collective effort demanded by the coach to ensure the team's readiness for tournaments ahead will be a chorus he will sing until he enters the job market soon, probably because of his hoarse voice and SAFA will be seeking for more melodious vocal chords to sing the same tune. 

What never ceases to amaze it the audacity to question the Bafana FIFA ranking. SAFA and the nation forget that like a bank account, it is what you put in the football that counts, and not the size of the egos. When it comes to the playing field, Bafana are just like ball boys. 

The best defender of the country warms the bench in lower divisions in England. The best midfielders does the same at the Barclays Premier League. The nation's number goalkeeper is going for trials with lower divisions in England soon. Compare that to the best player in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana. For most of the time, Bafana are not even a top 10 African team, yet the resources and facilities are world-class. 

In any case, the boys from Kasi should be taking their game from the streets and try to make a statement in big teams in the league. All youngsters are glued to TVs and PCs playing video games, but the nations needs them to carry the flag high. All that the parents can do, is take these gadgets away and let the boys take to the field and hopefully, one day, Bafana Bafana will be what we once thought they were. 

As it is now, it is a big shame.

Bafading Bafading

It is a little bit of a shame that football things have to turn out this way. As it seems now, it is absolutely no-one's HUGE fault. South Africa's Bafana Bafana name is cursed anyway. The team had religiously lived or rather played under the name to the letter. The only missing part is the befitting prefix - "weeping".

Let's get this straight. South Africa played well in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but well below their well-known potential. If Steve Pienaar and Teko Modise, just to name two, played the way we know they can, history would be different today. I will not blame them. It was the name. It is a heavy name, actually light. In their hearts, they always felt like Bafana Zero or Bafana Light.

In the build up to the World Cup, I was hoping that a suggestion like the name or term that former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira used in their tour in Brazil when they played Chile, would stick. South Africa came from a goal down to draw the match. In a press conference, in praising his team performance, he said, "We are KING LIONS" or was it LION KINGS? I personally tried to sell that name somewhere on this blog without getting any buyer.

The claimant of the name Bafana Bafana, if it is his trademark as he claims, can surely successfully sue for the R10 million SAFA is said to have made using the name during the World Cup. SAFA now say the public must come up with a new name because this one came from the people.

As usual, protocol will have to be followed. A setting-up committee to set up a name searching committee will have to begin. This committee will be required to set a technical committee to oversee the process. The technical committee will be tasked with appointing a public committee responsible for organising the meeting of the name approving committee. This one will have to be in charge of stipulating all exhaustive issues surrounding the choices that will come forth. They will need one committee that ascertain no duplication or registered trade marks are selected.

The last committee before the one that hands over the name to SAFA will be responsible to register this name as a property of South African football. I do not think by this time SAFA will have enough money to set a speed committee to register this name quick enough before someone claims that name theirs.

Bafading Bafading

It is a little bit of a shame that football things have to turn out this way. As it seems now, it is absolutely no-one's HUGE fault. South Africa's Bafana Bafana name is cursed anyway. The team had religiously lived or rather played under the name to the letter. The only missing part is the befitting prefix - "weeping".

Let's get this straight. South Africa played well in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but well below their well-known potential. If Steve Pienaar and Teko Modise, just to name two, played the way we know they can, history would be different today. I will not blame them. It was the name. It is a heavy name, actually light. In their hearts, they always felt like Bafana Zero or Bafana Light.

In the build up to the World Cup, I was hoping that a suggestion like the name or term that former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira used in their tour in Brazil when they played Chile, would stick. South Africa came from a goal down to draw the match. In a press conference, in praising his team performance, he said, "We are KING LIONS" or was it LION KINGS? I personally tried to sell that name somewhere on this blog without getting any buyer.

The claimant of the name Bafana Bafana, if it is his trademark as he claims, can surely successfully sue for the R10 million SAFA is said to have made using the name during the World Cup. SAFA now say the public must come up with a new name because this one came from the people.

As usual, protocol will have to be followed. A setting-up committee to set up a name searching committee will have to begin. This committee will be required to set a technical committee to oversee the process. The technical committee will be tasked with appointing a public committee responsible for organising the meeting of the name approving committee. This one will have to be in charge of stipulating all exhaustive issues surrounding the choices that will come forth. They will need one committee that ascertain no duplication or registered trade marks are selected.

The last committee before the one that hands over the name to SAFA will be responsible to register this name as a property of South African football. I do not think by this time SAFA will have enough money to set a speed committee to register this name quick enough before someone claims that name theirs.