Another topsy-turvy year of football
ADULL moment is hard to find in the topsyturvy world of South African football and, as the popular sport continued its old trend of taking steps backwards and forward this year, the never-ending pains of Bafana Bafana were mixed with interesting developments on the club scene.
Right at the beginning of the year, the SA Football Association put a big smile on the face of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) by hosting the best ever African Cup of Nations finals, which broke attendance, sponsorship and TV audience records in what is still regarded as the “Europe of Africa”.
With such smooth running of the tournament not seen before, considering the dire poverty situation in many African countries, CAF’s smart and young secretary general from Morocco, Hicham El Amrani, quipped it would be good for his organisation to host Afcon in South Africa all the time, but this was not politically possible, of course.
However, the first African nation to stage the World Cup again proved to be good hosts but poor performers on the field itself.
The disappointment of Bafana failing to make the second round of the World Cup in 2010 was repeated when Gordon Igesund’s men could not get past Mali in the quarter-finals of the biennial continental tournament in Durban.
Igesund would go on to fail to meet his second mandate later in the year – to qualify for the World Cup in Brazil next June – but he escaped the chop from new Safa president Danny Jordaan and went on to lead his men to an upset victory over Spain at FNB Stadium last month. With this being the first defeat for a reigning world champion on African soil, Jordaan now appeared to have less room to end Igesund’s contract prematurely – it finishes next June – and the “Durban Dazzler” was allowed to continue with preparations for the next CAF event to be hosted by South Africa next month – the African Nations Championship.
Dubbed “CHAN”, the tournament features only homebased players from 16 countries and takes place between January 11 and February 1 in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Polokwane.
Since Bafana’s victory over Spain featured several homebased players, it suggested Igesund’s men would be favourites for honours in what is going to be the third edition of CHAN, but the national coach soon found himself in yet another club-versus-country controversy where Chiefs in particular were not willing to send a flood of players on national duty as a guard against fatigue ahead of the second round of the 2013/14 league campaign and possible African commitments.
The South Africans will nevertheless be based in Cape Town, where Igesund has family, and their opponents in Group A will be Mali, Nigeria and Mozambique.
Nigeria’s senior team made light of the challenge from Mali ‘A’ in the semi-finals of the Nations’ Cup in Durban and then edged Burkina Faso 1-0 in the final in Johannesburg.
Unlike Bafana, Stephen Keshi’s Super Eagles will be strutting their stuff at the World Cup in Brazil next year, with fellow West African teams Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana, as well as Algeria.
Though Igesund posted a good record in the four qualifying matches he took charge of, the damage had already been done at the start of Bafana’s qualifying campaign last year and they couldn’t even take advantage of a points deduction suffered by group leaders Ethiopia following a foolish handling of suspensions.
The Ethiopians were knocked out by Nigeria in the final stage of qualifying, a twolegged knockout, and it’s doubtful where Igesund’s men would have done any better against the Super Eagles.
Before Igesund, English coach Stuart Baxter had failed to qualify Bafana for the World Cup in Germany in 2006, but his return to the country to lead Chiefs turned out a delight for the large Amakhosi following around the country.
Chiefs, with an improved squad, broke an eight-season duck in the championship and went on to complete the “Double” by edging SuperSport United in the final of the Nedbank Cup in May.
Platinum Stars from unfashionable Phokeng also caught the eye with their well-organised passing game last season that took them to second spot and, despite the departure of coach Cavin Johnson to SuperSport at the end of the campaign for a bigger salary, they proceeded to clinch both the MTN8 and Telkom Knockout in the first four months of the new season. Nobody expected that. Pirates were the runners-up in both those events, but coach Roger de Sa’s Buccaneers nevertheless did the country proud by reaching the final of the 2013 CAF Champions League before losing to the “Red Devils” of Egypt, Al Ahly.
Last season also saw the return of veteran coach Clive Barker to the bench and, after his good run with Wits in a caretaker capacity, the Durbanite took charge of newly-promoted Black Aces this term.
It was a less successful period for Durban clubs AmaZulu, Golden Arrows and Maritzburg United, with the latter two not having title sponsors and sitting in the bottom three of the standings at present.
Next year can only be better for them, as well as Bafana.