The Bafana Bafana situation has reached crisis proportions but head coach Shakes Mashaba and his employers – Safa – apparently don’t see it that way.
After the temporary international retirement of top-class FC Twente midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo and the subsequent revelations in a Sunday newspaper of an increasing mood of discontent and unhappiness in the Bafana squad, alarm bells should surely be clanging in Safa corridors. It doesn’t appear to be, though.
While the disclosures about the serious shortcomings of Mashaba as coach come from unnamed players in the squad, Safa has a duty to at least investigate the claims. Where there’s smoke …
Also, victimisation is almost a national past-time in South Africa, which is why it’s understandable that the players would want to remain anonymous.
Accusations against Mashaba include his “old school” style of coaching, that he hasn’t adapted to modern methods in the game; that joining the Bafana training camp provides nothing new in the way of proper match preparation; that there is little knowledge of information on their opponents; that they are “treated like children”; and that, tactically, Mashaba is out of his depth.
Safa, too, comes in for stick in that the players feel the association is too aloof and distant from the players, and there is no conduit for them to voice their grievances.
With qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations probably out of reach, Bafana’s focus should now shift to the 2018 World Cup qualifiers later this year. The question Safa needs to ponder is whether they would want to tackle those crucial qualifiers with a coach who appears to have lost his dressing-room.
Player power is a thing, like it or not. Ask Jose Mourinho ... we’ve all seen how deviously he was worked out by footballers who simply disengaged themselves, gave the minimum amount of effort, and allowed the team’s natural decline to eventually pave the way for the coach’s dismissal.
Can Safa afford to play hard ball against such sentiment? You can bet your last cent they will. Because such an obdurate stance, and headstrong attitude is yet another national obsession. It doesn’t matter what the people want or, in this case, what the players want; those perched in their stubborn, protected ivory towers always believe they know better.
Because, sadly, that is just how South Africa operates – the coaching change will happen only when they decide to, when they tell you ... not when you demand it, and certainly not when the players want it. Does that sound familiar? - Cape Times