Home

Jordaan on Baxter’s future as Bafana coach

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Should the South African Football Association (Safa) decide to part ways with Bafana Bafana head coach Stuart Baxter, the issue of the settlement could be a stumbling block given the financial situation at the association.

Baxter returned home to South Africa on Saturday after bowing out in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament after losing to Nigeria 2-1.

The team had a poor group stages campaign losing two matches, but redeemed themselves when they knocked out hosts Egypt 1-0 in the last 16.

But there have been signs even before the tournament that Safa is not convinced by the long term vision of Baxter.

Safa President Danny Jordaan was non-committal about the Briton’s future .

Baxter’s conservative approach was criticised and certain players in the team also raised questions about the ultra-defensive tactics.

But it’s the team’s long-term objectives, which will be the fall of Baxter. He brought the second oldest team in the tournament despite the successful run of Safa junior national teams at international level.

As the tournament progressed, Baxter also couldn’t hide his disappointment at not having had adequate preparation coming to this tournament.

He blamed the lackluster performances in the group stages to not having had enough warm-up games. But Jordaan poured cold water on this.

Bafana players will be pocketing R520 000 each for reaching the Afcon quarterfinals.

Safa will be paying close to R12 million overall.

Jordaan says this is in contracts signed with the players. – Report by Velile Mnyandu

Author

MOST READ