A new Bafana Bafana coach will be announced “soon after the Angola match”‚ which will be played in East London on Tuesday‚ said South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan on Sunday.
Still‚ though‚ Jordaan could only say he “hoped” that would be the case but could not be pinned down on an exact day.
He did again make the assurance that the new man has been identified‚ and it is simply a matter of tying up a contract.
Jordaan was speaking at a press conference in Durban on Sunday morning following Bafana’s 3-1 friendly win against Guinea-Bissau at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday‚ and ahead of a second match against Angola.
He said speculation in the media that Safa have been unable to tie down a coach to replace Shakes Mashaba‚ who was sacked in December‚ had arisen from the association’s efforts to keep the public informed on the process of finding a coach.
“I think the mistake we made was that we told you in the beginning that we had 65 applications and walked you through the process‚” Jordaan said.
“And as we went down from 65 to 20 to five that’s where the momentum came. And then we could not disrupt the selection of the teams and bring uncertainty into these two matches (against Guinea-Bissau and Angola).
“These matches were important as preparation for the Cape Verde match in the World Cup.
“But the one thing that is very clear is that Bafana Bafana is one of the most desired jobs as a coach from all over the world.
“Yesterday (Saturday) and today (Sunday) I got more CVs.
“And people saying just look again. And I said‚ ‘No man‚ the process is closed and the media will fight us if we say it’s open again’.
“We must close it now and make the announcement‚ and we will make the announcement.
“But we have also departed from the process where just officials make the decision.
“We have Benni McCarthy‚ Neil Tovey‚ Farouk Khan and Lucas Radebe [on Safa’s technical committee]‚ who sifted through the names and decided who the coach should be.
“And there’s an agreement on who the coach is now. It is just to sign the details.
“We hope that it is soon after the Angola match that we ask you to wait no longer.”
Mashaba’s former assistant‚ Owen Da Gama‚ has served as caretaker-coach in this week’s two friendlies.