Bafana coach should be wary of crossing Nonkonyana

ITHOUGHT either the ancient Blaupunkt that takes pride of place in the middle of my living room was acting up again or the potent medication I’d taken to deal with a tickle cough was playing tricks on me as I watched the news on Monday night.

These thoughts raced through my mind after I thought I’d heard beleaguered Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund tell journalists at a press conference that one of his bosses — South African Football Association (Safa) vice-president Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana — was talking nonsense for suggesting he “should do the honourable thing” if Bafana do not win the African Nations Championship in SA next year.

This television set of mine is not reliable at the best of times and I’ve developed the habit of recording news bulletins just to be on the safe side.

And so I pushed the rewind button and, true enough, there was our man Igesund addressing journalists at OR Tambo International Airport moments after Bafana returned from Morocco on Monday morning.

Bafana drew 1-1 with Morocco in an away friendly match of little significance on Friday night and I’m told the hacks who welcomed the team back home at the airport brought Igesund up to speed about Nonkonyana’s comments.

The acerbic-tongued Nonkonyana had told a TV sports programme that Igesund was mandated by his employers to win the African Nations Championship, and the journalists shared this bit of news as soon as Igesund touched down.

For lack of a better description, the African Nations Championship is really a poor man’s African Nations Cup and is less glamorous than its highprofile cousin.

The championship does not feature any of the continent’s high-profile players that are synonymous with the Nations Cup as it is not played on dates designated by Fifa for official matches.

I’m told Igesund went ballistic and said, among other things: “It’s absolute nonsense. I don’t know where he (Nonkonyana) gets that. I’ve got no mandates at this moment. I have a contract with Safa until (July) 2014.” Oh dear, Gordon, you didn’t? Igesund has been around the block several times and I’d have thought he knew that Nonkonyana is an old hand at delivering damning news that his more tactful colleagues at Safa shy away from.

While his colleagues usually play good cop when a national team coach’s job suddenly comes under scrutiny, the good chief happily plays bad cop.

And pertinently, things usually do not end very well for a national team coach after Nonkonyana has delivered his trademark scathing analysis of the troubled mentor.

Just ask former Bafana coaches Joel Natalino Santana and Pitso Mosimane.

Much like Igesund is doing right now, Santana stared down the barrel of a loaded gun and dared Safa to fire him after an eighth Bafana loss in nine matches just minutes after landing at the selfsame OR Tambo International Airport in October 2009. There must be something about this airport that makes coaches’ tongues reckless.

Anyway, Nonkonyana was not impressed and issued a damning assessment of the coach. And guess what, Santana was fired a few days later. Ditto Mosimane.

The Safa vice-president told Business Day in February 2012 that Mosimane had an ultimatum and — you guessed it — he was also fired a few months later.

A little birdie tells me that several Safa suits were astounded by Igesund’s outburst on Monday and they cannot believe that an employee had the temerity to address one of his senior bosses in such a reckless manner in public.

The little birdie tells me a letter could be written to Igesund in the coming days and if he hasn’t refreshed the old CV, he had better start now.

He has managed to upset a lot of influential people and the little birdie was chirping away even as I was furiously pounding away on the keyboard yesterday.

I’ve never ignored the little birdie’s sweet nothings in all my years behind this keyboard, and neither should Igesund.