Parreira to take charge of Bafana
Brad Morgan
30 July 2006
The South African Football Association's Danny Jordaan flew to Brazil late last week intent on securing the services of Carlos Alberto Parreira as coach of Bafana Bafana through to 2010, including the World Cup which South Africa will be hosting. It was a case of mission accomplished.
The much-traveled 63-year-old Parreira put pen to paper on a letter of intent. Next, he will travel to South Africa within the next two weeks and complete the technicalities of the contract, but it is understood to be pretty much done and dusted.
Reports surrounding his salary are that it will be a whopping one, somewhere between R1-million and R2-million per month.
When will Parreira take over?
Just when Parreira will take over the coaching reins is unclear. Some reports say he wants to start in 2007 only, while others say he would prefer to get stuck in earlier, maybe as early as September when Bafana Bafana play their first
qualifying match for the 2008 African Cup of Nations against Congo.
South Africa is grouped in Group J with the Congolese, Chad, and Zambia.
One of Parreira's biggest challenges will be to put his stamp on Bafana Bafana. In the past several national coaches have felt stymied by the intervention of the South African Football Association (Safa), the most recent example being that of Stuart Baxter.
He resigned eight months before his contract expired, complaining that his work with Bafana Bafana had been undermined by a number of Safa staff members. He asked for their removal and when it wasn't forthcoming he quit.
Assistants named
It is interesting that Safa has already said that Parreira will be assisted by Pitso Mosimane and Khabo Zondo. Usually when a coach takes over a prime position as Parreira will be doing, he brings along his choice of right hand man. Whether he is aware of the positions that Mosimane and Zondo will
apparently assume remains to be seen.
In contrast to Baxter – and this might help him in dealing with outside influences - Parreira has experience on his side having coached Brazil to World Cup victory in 1994, as well as having led Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, and Saudi Arabia to the World Cup finals.
Should he see out the four years of his contract, he would become the longest serving South African national coach yet!
Quite a challenge
Parreira has quite a challenge on his hands. Bafana Bafana have slipped to seventy-second in the FIFA world rankings. With Finland and Macedonia just above them and Belarus and Burkina Faso just behind them, the South African national team isn't exactly in inspiring company.
But then, who would have expected Parreira to help a tiny country like Kuwait reach the World Cup finals? The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, too, are hardly names that draw fearful expectations from
opposition.
So, hopefully the new man in charge of Bafana Bafana will be able to repeat his track record of success with lesser footballing nations.
Thankfully, South Africa has its place assured at the 2010 World Cup finals as host of the event, but Bafana Bafana's passionate supporters will accept nothing less than a good showing in soccer's greatest spectacular.
Is Parreira the man to bring that success to the hungry fans? Only time will tell.
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