Football bosses want to retain junior assistant coach system
Danny Jordaan says the South African Football Association (Safa) wants to maintain coach synergy across the different age groups‚ but will have talks with the new Bafana Bafana coach before deciding whether to retain the incumbents.
The Safa president said the system of junior coaches sitting on each other’s benches up to senior level had ensured a smooth progression of players through the ranks and had to be retained.
Jordaan praised the junior coaches for helping their teams qualify for major tournaments‚ but did not commit to them remaining in their jobs.
“We have said that what is important is the structure and the continuity from Under-17 to U-20 to U-23 to the senior national team‚” Jordaan said.
“I think [previously] a lot of our players got lost because there’s not that working relationship and the integration of the technical staff. So, we will stick to that principle.
“And, secondly‚ we will have to discuss it with whoever the new coach is. The fact of the matter is Molefi Ntseki took the U-17s to SA’s first participation at the U-17 World Cup.
“This period in our history is the most successful in terms of qualification and participation of all of our teams. The U-20s have just lost their crown of being U-20 Cosafa champions and qualified for their World Cup.
“The U-23s — we were the only country on the continent to have had two teams [men and women] at the Olympics and one of only eight in the world.
“So our teams have had great success — Ntseki‚ Thabo Senong as the U-20 coach and [Owen da Gama] with the U-23s at the Rio Olympics. So, there are tick marks behind their achievements in their particular category,” Jordaan said.
SA’s U-20 and U-23 coaches‚ Senong and Da Gama‚ were assistants to previous Bafana head coach Shakes Mashaba‚ who was axed in December. Senong was Da Gama’s U-23 assistant and U-17 coach Ntseki was Senong’s U-20s assistant.
Safa is set to announce a new Bafana head coach this week, Jordaan has said. /