Bafana coaching job a poisoned chalice
MagRush writer | August 05, 2019
Coaching at international level is the highest badge of honour for any aspiring
manager. The salaries are usually sky-shattering. In South Africa (SA),
however, it is a different ball game. For a coach may leave before setting a
bum on seat, or be hounded out by the media to jump ship before the contract
elapses, or be pushed to quit by the employer. Worse still, the coach may be
sacked prematurely. Here, MagRush special edition delves deeper into the
national squad issue.
Talk of a Bafana Bafana (the South African national soccer team) coach who will
stay longer persists. Changing coaches is no longer a shocking development in SA
football news circles; neither is the frequency of its occasion. The personalities who
come and go are the only notable difference. It is the administration of our football
that is questionable. Awful decisions have been made in the past that continue to
bedevil the sport. The custodian of the country’s football, the South African
Football Association (SAFA), offers superficial hope. Safa is simply struggling to
keep the ball rolling at different age groups and levels nationwide.
Although the personnel running football in the country change overtime, there is
little progress in the field of play. However, the buzz around the national team is
felt in the depths of rural South Africa and overflows in the streets of ordinary
townships and, at times, touches the cocoons of the elites’ leafy suburbs. This
passion from the fans is easy to understand. Football is the single biggest sport
that brings joy to the people who have embraced it in all its splendour, wearing
“the beautiful game” armour. Indeed, it is some sort of religion in many areas of the
globe. To most, it is accessible with ease and all too familiar.
The recent resignation on August 02, 2019 of Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter
threw the nation into a frenzy yet again. The old and the usual character of our
football at international level swung back into the spotlight for no unknown
reasons. Some say it was news doing rounds gasping for confirmation.
There will be a new man in charge of Bafana Bafana hardly two years since Baxter
was hired by SAFA. The squad has had more than five coaches since 2010. To be
terribly blunt: In less than 30 years, SA has had almost 20 Bafana coaches since
readmission into the international fold. Work out the average! Changes of this
nature have far-reaching consequences in the form and style of any sporting team,
more so if there is no continuation from within. These head coach changes affect
the rhythm of Bafana Bafana. There will never be consistency or momentum to
speak of, if nothing happens to stop this ritual madness (of chopping and changing
coaches). Lack of instability has resulted in player-selection and tactical chaos in
the entire senior team set up.
Of course, there was much fanfare upon Baxter’s recruitment and limping Bafana
Bafana to the 2019 edition of the Africa Cup of Nation’s (Afcon) in Egypt. Again,
the national squad surprised many when it mathematically qualified for the second
round and catapulted itself into the quarterfinals of the tournament. Bafana
Bafana’s progression to the quarterfinals came at the expense of the hosts, Egypt.
It was a sweet victory albeit temporary.
SAFA crystallised its backing for Baxter by heaping praises on him, saying he had
achieved the mandate set for him by the association. Heads swelled with pride,
arrogance and a sense of invisibility. Ultimately, Bafana Bafana were eliminated in
the quarterfinals by the “Super Eagles”, Nigeria. Jinxed!
Casting his exit in the traditional and popular media, Stuart Baxter quit. He left
SAFA high and dry, despite its continued support. Addressing the media in his
private capacity Baxter said the Bafana Bafana coaching job has never been about
making money, trying his best to convince everyone that it is a privilege to coach
the national team.
It is unclear what went wrong between him and his employer, but something went
horribly awry. There, he quit. SAFA’s pat on his back evaporated. For his part he
said the “takeout” for resigning will be “a massive zero” when a golden handshake
(running into millions of rand) was suggested. “Money is not my God,” Baxter
continued at his media briefing.
What is indisputable is that in some quarters Baxter had lifted the hopes of many
patriots. Qualifying for the second round seemed enough to please SAFA House.
Therefore, the coach was somewhat assured of his job. Any coach would take
solace from that. His stay was not under threat. But Baxter had other ideas. That
purported flickering vision for transforming Bafana Bafana into world beaters
under his gaze was untimely smothered.
To this day, nobody has any idea where Bafana Bafana are going. They seem more
like a ship that has set sail without a destination. Not even the insufferable SAFA
can throw a slightest clue.
Certainly, those with a stake in football were held in wonder how Bafana Bafana
will look like in the near future after what came across, at least to outsiders, as an
embarrassing Afcon 2019 exit. Definitely, that is the conundrum facing any
incoming coach. Whether the new head coach is local, semi-local or comes from
abroad, it matters little.