New coaches welcomed
THIS week marked some interesting moments in our football.
We noted with interest how the Labour Court dismissed axed Bafana Bafana mentor Shakes Mashaba’s attempt to interdict Safa not to appoint his successor while he is challenging his dismissal at the CCMA.
Much as Mashaba is well within his rights to challenge his sacking, at least the court gave the country a reprieve as the national team is racing against time to have a new coach in place.
Notwithstanding Mashaba’s pending CCMA case, we believe Safa acted in the interest of the nation by going ahead with the search and shortlisting five men to consider for the vacant job.
Still on the coaches, another interesting development this week was the unveiling of the new Orlando Pirates coach.
Much as the Buccaneers roped in a foreign trainer, we found comfort that they introduced a fresh face to our league in the little-known Kjell Jonevret, bucking the irritating trend of recycling coaches. We hope the Swede will add value to our league, provided he is afforded enough chance to do so.
We also welcome Pirates’ move to appoint a local man, Harold “Jazzy Queen” Legodi, to deputise for Jonevret.
Legodi runs a successful academy that gave Pirates the likes of Oupa Manyisa and Lehlogonolo Masalesa, now based in Greece.
We look upon the likes of Legodi to follow in the footsteps of Pitso Mosimane, who is undoubtedly the success story of our homegrown coaches.
On a sour note, we found it disturbing that virtually nothing has been done by local football authorities to address the incident of Clifton Miheso, the former Golden Arrows player who told us in January how he allegedly terminated his contract in the presence of guntoting men.
We applaud the SA Football Players Union for taking this up by picketing at Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s visit to Safa House on Tuesday.
Although Infantino was apparently clueless at what the protest was all about, the message was flung in his face to grab enough attention.
Hopefully, Safa and the PSL will come out to tell us if they are investigating Arrows’ alleged actions as neither of the two bodies have publicly pronounced anything on the matter.