Herve tops list at Safa

FRENCHMAN Herve Renard will feature highly at tomorrow’s meeting of the SA Football Association’s executive committee as a possible Bafana Bafana coach, Sowetan has established. Safa executives meet tomorrow to discuss candidates to replace axed Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba, and it has emerged that Renard – who coaches Morocco – is one of the names that will be discussed. Renard refused to talk on the subject at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon this month, but his representatives are said to have held informal talks with Safa president Danny Jordaan at the tournament. Jordaan could not be reached for comment yesterday, but should give feedback to the NEC tomorrow.

Safa executives appear to have removed the idea of hiring a local coach after Mamelodi Sundowns trainer Pitso Mosimane reiterated his unavailability, while SuperSport United’s Stuart Baxter this week laughed off suggestions he would return to the Bafana post.

Beyond the two, no local coach seems to meet Safa’s criteria, but the performance of other locals at the Nations Cup – where none reached the last four – will also influence the decision on Bafana’s next coach and force the Safa mandarins to look abroad.

Renard, too, did not reach the semifinals with Morocco knocked out by Egypt in the quarters, but his record of two Nations Cup titles with different nations – Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015 – is unmatched.

Tomorrow’s meeting at Safa House will begin with the Safa technical committee giving the executives their shortlist of preferred candidates for both the Bafana post and the Banyana Banyana job.

It’s unclear if the new coaches would be announced after tomorrow’s meeting, with Mashaba’s legal team having threatened an interdict to stop the appointment, pending his arbitration case at the CCMA.

Mashaba and Safa reached a deadlock this week at their first CCMA hearing following disagreement over compensation.

Sources close to the parties say Mashaba wanted to be compensated half of the 18 months remaining when his contract was terminated in December, which amounts to about R5-million. But Safa felt he “didn’t deserve even a cent”.

When he was axed by Safa in 2012, Mosimane received about five months’ pay in compensation, but he earned nearly R1-million monthly. Mashaba got R500 000 per month.

“His record of two Nations Cup titles with different nations unmatched