Sticking to his guns

Baxter vows to quit if Bafana Bafana lose

Bafana Bafana team manager Barney Kujane remains stuck in Johannesburg after rivals Libya continued to play mind games with the South African Football Association (Safa) and refused to reveal the logistics of next month’s crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between the two sides.

Kujane was supposed to depart for North Africa to inspect facilities this week but Safa still have no clue whether the game would be played in Tunisia or Egypt‚ and on which date.

Safa communications boss Dominic Chimhavi said the Libyans were yet to confirm the venue and date of the crunch encounter and the only thing officials knew was that it will be played on the weekend on March 22-24.

‘‘Our team manager [Kujane] was supposed to travel to the match venue this week to finalise logistics around the flights‚ accommodation‚ facilities etc,” Chimhavi said.

“But he can’t do that anymore because there’s been no communication from Libya.

‘‘Where does he travel‚ is it to Egypt or is it to Tunisia?

“We still do not know and this impacts on our planning because we wanted to do things well ahead of the match. We don’t even know which day this game will be played.”

Bafana are in second place in Group E with nine points, behind leaders Nigeria‚ who have already qualified.

Libya‚ who must win to take second place in the group behind Nigeria and deny SA qualification‚ cannot host the game in the North African country due to a long-standing Fifa ban over security concerns and must find a neutral venue.

The security situation in Libya is considered dangerous with various rival factions and warlords battling for control over the country’s oil wealth.

Libya have hosted their home games in either Egypt or Tunisia in recent years.

Meanwhile‚ Bafana coach Stuart Baxter said he still held himself responsible for SA’s failure to qualify for last year’s World Cup in Russia.

“When we didn’t qualify for the World Cup‚ I held myself hugely responsible‚” Baxter said.

“I do not make excuses and blame the players.

“I held myself responsible‚ that’s how I am. That’s how I am,” he said.

“I’ve got great difficulty debriefing a game properly because I’ve got to get over my worries first.

“So after the World Cup‚ I can only tell you that the whole World Cup campaign was difficult mentally for our players because of all the nonsense that was going on with the Senegal game.”

Fifa ordered a replay of the World Cup qualifier between Bafana and Senegal and the original result (a 2-1 win for Bafana in Polokwane) was annulled after the match officiating raised suspicion.

The world governing body’s investigation was triggered by betting patterns and it led to Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey being found guilty of match manipulation.

Senegal won the replayed encounter 2-0 but Bafana continued to harbour slim hopes of somehow sneaking in via the back door when they travelled to Dakar for the final group qualifier.

Bafana only need to either draw or beat Libya to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and Baxter has already promised to quit if they lose. –