Too late to sack Shakes

THE SA Football Association meets tomorrow, ostensibly to deliberate on whether Shakes Mashaba should continue as Bafana Bafana coach or not.

As to why Safa chose to convene this meeting, to discuss specifically this issue, seems bizarre given that it has been clear since as early as March that South Africa would miss out on qualification for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon.

From the moment Bafana failed to win either of their opening two group games against Gambia and Mauritania, the signs were there that they may not make it. And when they could only find successive draws against Cameroon in back-toback matches six months ago, the door was firmly shut.

Then, Safa did not raise any issue with Mashaba’s regime, reasoning there’s a bigger picture to look into.

Suddenly, following last week’s final group match against Mauritania, which Bafana could only draw, Safa plunged the team into panic mode.

The association’s president Danny Jordaan, making a rare appearance at a football event, said in a TV interview that “this is the end” in words that insinuated that Mashaba would face the sack.

The tune changed moments after the selfsame Mashaba led Bafana to Tuesday’s Nelson Mandela Challenge victory over Egypt, with Jordaan saying he had been “encouraged” by what he had seen.

This is the kind of flip-flopping we hardly need, not least when this weekend marks one month to go before the World Cup 2018 qualifiers kick off.

Safa must tomorrow come out clearly on what happens, with Mashaba adamant that he’ll lead the team to Russia as he knows “nothing about any meeting” to decide his future.

Safa must ask itself if it’s worth it to get a new coach just four weeks before the first game against Burkina Faso.

While Mashaba’s own performance and behaviour have not helped his cause, sacking him now is not advisable, given that, if anything, it should have been done six months ago already.