The Bafana Bafana squad that will go play at a four nation’s tournament in Zambia was named on Tuesday. The most notable call up is not amongst the players but on the side-lines.
The highly rated Orlando Pirates assistant coach Rhulani Mokwena has been called to help in the national team for this tournament.
Having failed to qualify for many major tournaments, South African football needs change on the administrative side and former referee Andile “Ace” Ncobo believes he is the right man for the job.
He is serious about taking on Danny Jordaan for the South African Football Association (Safa) hotspot and says he will fight to keep the Safa and Fifa statutes in order even if it means getting rid off Danny Jordaan from Safa House.
“Nominee Danny Jordaan does not deserve to sit in that position he must go home. He must just go home at an appropriate time, when we have addressed certain issues of a private nature. Eyeball to eyeball with him, trying to do a Cyril Ramaphosa-Jacob Zuma arrangement with him of a dignified exit. We shall speak about certain issues but as things stand now we are going to defend the FIFA statutes. We are going to defend the Safa statutes and its electoral codes from being raped, pun intended,” Ncobo said.
Safa speaks often of its Vision 2022, however Ncobo believes that it will never be a success as long as they do not fix the problem where development starts.
“Where is school football, how can you hope to have proper development in your country when the structure that holds 90% of the constituency in football development has been exiled from football?”said Ncobo.
Meanwhile, Bafana are not going to the World Cup this year and will now look to this tournament to keep the boys fit. Baxter called up a few youngsters who are on fine form in the PSL, showing that if you perform for your team, the national team will reward you with a call up.
Stuart Baxter says that he is going to Zambia to win the tournament while giving the youngsters some exposure.
Baxter has made 14 changes from the team that failed to qualify for the showpiece in Russia. He says reason for this was because he wants the young players to fight for laces against the experienced players.
“What we are trying to do is to take some of the youngsters and give them a fighting chance, to mix them up with some of the more established guys and try to find a red line. Zambia has done a very good job by the way. I saw their world cup with the young ones they were very good. We also had players in this squad that were there. We also have a player Innocent Maela who played in the last Cosafa”
The tournament takes place in Zambia from March 22 to 25. Bafana’s first match will be against Angola on the 22nd of March.
