Safa is unlikely to make Gordon Igesund walk Mninawa Ntloko, 19 June 2013, 07:45 YOU would have been able to hear the rasping sound of two well-sharpened daggers deliberately scraping against each other shortly after the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of Bafana Bafana’s qualifying match against Ethiopia in Addis Ababa on Sunday afternoon. The daggers were intended for coach Gordon Igesund’s back as some singled him out for blame after the 2-1 defeat to the Ethiopians seemingly ended South Africa’s chances of qualifying for the 2014 Soccer World Cup in Brazil. The growing chorus of detractors maintains that Igesund failed to fulfil the two main mandates set out for him by his South African Football Association (Safa) employers when he got the gig a year ago. For this, he should be made to walk the plank, like all other previous victims who failed to meet the objectives set for them. Igesund failed to reach the semifinals of the African Nations Cup in early 2013, and Bafana were seemingly booted out of the qualifying race for the 2014 Soccer World Cup at the weekend. The Safa of old would have been willing to go along with the popular search for a convenient scapegoat and a well-sharpened guillotine would be hanging dangerously close to Igesund’s neck right now. Igesund meets his employers on Wednesday to discuss the way forward but a little birdie tells me the days of rash decision-making by Safa are coming to end. The Bafana coach would be granted a stay of execution. Don’t forget that this is election year and the sacking of a national team coach would help portray Safa as a chaotic organisation that regularly fires the Bafana mentor to cover up for the lack of proper planning. They already have a lot of negativity on their plate to deal with and adding the sacking of a national team coach would worsen the situation. I’ve never ignored the little birdie’s sweet nothings in all my years behind this keyboard and I’m not about to start now. The little birdie tells me that while there are some at Safa who smell blood and are desperate for a sacrificial lamb to be led to the slaughter, it is not going to be Igesund. Bafana were in a mess when Igesund took over a year ago, and there are enough powerful people at Safa who acknowledge that he’s the reason the whole country started believing that the national team could qualify for Brazil in the first place. More pertinently, the people in his corner have enough juice and power to rebuff any attempts to wield the axe in his direction. They argue that costly drawn matches against Ethiopia and Botswana under sacked coach Pitso Mosimane and caretaker Steve Komphela in the infancy stages of the World Cup qualifying campaign put Bafana in a precarious position. Igesund was forced to play catch-up the entire campaign because of those disastrous draws, and the little birdie tells me no one in their right mind should blame the man for that. Now, it has since emerged that Bafana may yet have a lifeline that could come about if Fifa dock three points from Ethiopia for fielding an ineligible player in a 2014 Soccer World Cup qualifier against Botswana. Should Ethiopia be docked those points, Bafana would have a faint hope of qualifying via the back door if they beat Botswana and the East Africans stumble against the Central African Republic in the final qualifying games in September. Of course, the people at Safa are rather cautious about this whole business and are reluctant to raise the nation’s hopes on the basis of this slim chance. Hell, even Igesund himself was suddenly very cautious as soon as he stepped off the flight from Addis Ababa. But I’m pretty certain they’re all dancing to the beat of the samba drums behind closed doors in Nasrec, because Ethiopia’s bungle may well prove to be a gift-wrapped early Christmas present for South African football. Naturally, the Ethiopians are shocked by all this business and they’ve agreed to co-operate with Fifa while the investigation continues. No matter how this soap opera eventually turns out, Igesund should be safe and can begin preparations for the 2015 African Nations Cup in Morocco, and the 2018 Soccer World Cup in Russia. But his new contract will have certain stipulations attached to it and he should be the first to know that the Safa suits he has in his corner at the moment will not be so understanding if Bafana fail to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:35:50 +0000
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