Safa to splash the cash?

BAFANA COACH: PREFERRED CANDIDATES WOULD COME AT HUGE PRICE TAG

Queiroz, Renard the front runners to succeed Mashaba.

Danny Jordaan’s promise that money is no object in the hunt for a Bafana Bafana head coach faces its acid test as the naming of the new man draws ever-nearer.

Carlos Queiroz and Herve Renard are the two heavyweights on what The Citizen understands is a five-man shortlist for the Bafana job, but neither is going to come cheap for the South African Football Association (Safa), who have said they will announce their coach by the end of the week.

Queiroz is currently still under contract with the Iran national team, though he does appear unsettled, and reportedly resigned in January, upset at the federation’s lack of support. Still, Safa are likely to have to pay the Iranian Football Federation a hefty amount to buy him out of his contract, not to mention Queiroz’s salary demands.

The cost of hiring Queiroz was already enough to make Safa think twice back in 2014, when they courted the Portuguese, but ended up punting for local man Shakes Mashaba. Queiroz, of course, has already coached Bafana once before, controversially sacked despite qualifying the team for the 2002 Fifa World Cup.

Renard comes with all the continental pedigree a coach can need, having guided both Zambia and the Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations titles. He is currently with Morocco, who he took to the quarterfinals of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The Frenchman is contracted to the Atlas Lions until the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and again, Safa would probably have to pay a hefty fee to buy him out of his contract.

Renard is also in high demand – he has been linked to the head coach position with Algeria, Ghana and Senegal since the Afcon finals, and is also likely to demand a hefty salary package.

Safa’s position is made slightly better by the fact that they are towards the end of the current World Cup cycle – if they hire someone to lead Bafana until the end of the 2018 World Cup then they are only looking at around a 16-month contract, as opposed to a three or four-year term.

Still, there is always the risk of what happened when Safa hired Carlos Alberto Parreira to lead the team ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup finals. Parreira was paid a reported R1.8 million a month, but ended up failing to get Bafana out of their group, making South Africa the first host nation failing to advance to the next round.