The South African Football Association has committed to appointing a technical director by July 1, but chief executive Dennis Mumble has expressed concerns over affordability.

This amid calls for Safa to speed up the process.

Safa's technical committee, led by Natasha Tsichlas, met on Saturday in the hope of identifying and perhaps even shortlisting potential candidates for the vacant position.

But they could only settle on a timeline, Mumble said.

"The appointment of a technical director remains top of our agenda. [But] we do not want to make errors in giving the job to someone who is not well suited for the job and realise in the middle of a five-year contract that we've made a mistake," he said.

"We are also aware that finding the perfect candidate would mean we have to pay quite a bit, which then brings up the question around affordability."

It has become evident that the association will be forced to head-hunt a technical director.

"Getting someone in by July means we will be able to include their remuneration package in our budget because our financial year-end is in June," Mumble said.

Despite high-profile names being bandied about recently, among them Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter, Herve Renard of Ivory Coast and Avram Grant of Ghana, Mumble would only openly discuss Steve Komphela, the Maritzburg United mentor.

"Steve ticks all the boxes. He even had an impressive presentation on developing our football when he was in the running for the Bafana job [in 2012]," Mumble explained. "But he still wants to be out on the pitch as a head coach."