Carlos will see SA has gone backward
CARLOS Alberto Parreira is coming back to South Africa. Relax Gordon Igesund. Your job is safe until further notice, round about mid-year.
But this columnist comprehends Igesund’s sudden bout of constipation and palpitations when he hears the name Carlos mentioned in the same sentence as South African soccer. Igesund should worry about the other Carlos, Queiroz the Portuguese, who seems to have his gaze firmly fixed on replacing the incumbent after July. Back to Parreira. When he first shipped to these shores for his first Bafana Bafana stint Parreira was shellshocked to discover that development structures, in any shape or form, were nonexistent. A massive misnomer for a country touting itself as a madly-in-love-with- football nation.
Guess what? When he comes back with Brazil Parreira, who is now Luiz Felipe Scolari’s sidekick, will find that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The junior leagues whose absence he lamented are still pie in the sky.
He will find that the foundations of our developmental football are as firm as quicksand, basically a pipe-dream. He will note that the reserve league has died a quiet death. RIP reserve league.
In short, Parreira will see, as Queiroz saw for himself when he checked in for Chan last month, that the country has done little in the way of shoring up structures.
The one thing the Safa suits who ascended to power last September have corrected is to come up with credible opposition for Bafana.
Reigning world and European champion Spain came with Xavi, Iniesta et al and got pain in November.
Five-time world conquerors and current Confederations Cup kings Brazil will hulk in on Wednesday night looking to produce an Oscar (not Pistorius) performance that will inspire Neymar to say right said Fred.
Argentina are in the pipeline and one senses Kun Aguero will be keen to have no Messi on Bafana. High-profile friendlies against powerhouses serve to confirm that the powers that be treat the national team with the seriousness it deserves.
However, that same seriousness must be shown to the process of setting up structures across the length and breadth of our land.
Bafana will don a new look on Wednesday in a match that will mark the official handover from the 2010 World Cup to 2014 hosts. Changing the jersey is nice. But looks don’t play and certainly don’t win you matches.
In fact we played our best football in the 1990s when we wore one of the ugliest kits ever seen in the history of world football.
Don’t get me started on the stupid suggestion of a name change. Cameroon are the Indomitable Lions but whom have they mauled lately?
The Ivory Coast are known as the Elephants. Have they trampled their way to anything in the past decade with the embarrassment of riches in their all-powerful squad?
Bafana Bafana, that’s their name and it is here to stay, remain virgins when it comes to beating Brazil.
On Wednesday they’ll be led by a coach who is living on borrowed time. Tick tock.
The investigation into allegations of inciting a player strike levelled against Igesund appear a time-delaying tactic to prepare him for the inevitable parting of the ways.
If the battle against Brazil is his swan song, he should step out in style by inspiring Bafana to do to the Selecao what they did to La Roja.
All of us in every nook and cranny of our beloved land will indeed say Bafana have a good story to tell. But we want Safa to tell us that story. A tale of investment in infrastructure in every region for every young boy with hopes of becoming the next Shakes Mashaba, Doctor Khumalo, Eric Tinkler or Thulani Serero.
We will never get out of the quagmire of years of neglect without putting the necessary building blocks in place for us to regain a semblance of a serious soccer nation.
As much as Danny Jordaan speaks of a new way of doing things at Safa under his stewardship, he will do well to remember that sound bytes not supported by concrete action are more useless than a penny with a hole in it.