Baxter’s plan for Zambia falls flat

Highly regarded Pirates assistant coach unavailable

BAFANA Bafana coach Stuart Baxter’s plan to take Orlando Pirates assistant mentor Rhulani Mokwena to Zambia as part of the national team’s technical staff has turned into a public relations nightmare after it emerged yesterday that the idea has been stopped dead in its tracks.

Bafana will participate in a Four Nations tournament in Zambia this week and Baxter wanted Mokwena to accompany the national team as an observer to gain experience‚ with an eye to him even being national coach one day.

But Mokwena will not be on the flight to Zambia today after Baxter revealed that a communications breakdown between the South African Football Association (Safa) and Pirates put paid to that idea.

‘‘As everybody knows this camp has been really‚ really compromised in terms of time for preparation‚”said Baxter.

‘‘The warning times for us to know that we were taking part [in the Four Nations tournament] was very‚ very short.

‘‘And what that’s done it’s made the lines of communication also a little bit short‚ and it’s possible that protocols were not followed 100%.

‘‘So at this moment in time Rhulani will not be taking part in this camp.

‘‘We understand the situation at Pirates and we just want everybody to know that the intentions was to bring a young up-and-coming coach to the camp and give him that experience.

‘‘That was a positive gesture and I think all parties will look to try to readdress that in the future. But at the moment Rhulani will not be joining us.”

Baxter has never hidden the fact that he hoped to travel to the King’s Cup in Thailand where his charges would have met the hosts‚ Slovakia and United Arab Emirates in this week’s Fifa international window.

The Briton said the trip to Zambia was arranged in a haphazard manner and this in turn led to a breach of protocols that saw him announce Mokwena as a member of his technical staff when the plan had not been completely finalised with Pirates.

‘‘I think I got confirmation myself of the camp about 10 days before we were due to leave‚” said Baxter.

‘‘So the actual negotiations‚ if you wanna say‚ for the camp were protracted and therefore everything had to go very quickly.

‘‘And I just think that possibly in a normal world we would have given Pirates greater notice – they felt a little bit that this was sprung on them.

‘‘It is understandable because they are in a pressure situation at the moment [Pirates are second on the PSL standings and they are challenging for the league title].

‘‘But we all agree that the concept is a good one and that we want to do it‚ and Rhulani is a good candidate.

‘‘So no one is arguing [against his inclusion in the Bafana technical team]‚ it is just a question of ‘let’s make sure that we do it at the right tempo that suits everybody’.”

Bafana play their first match of the tournament against Angola on Thursday. —