Hardly two years ago, one of the stalwarts of South African football said he never expected coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to complete his contract at Safa. Neither did I.
Hardly two years ago, one of the stalwarts of South African football said he never expected coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to complete his contract at Safa. Neither did I.
We are the wealthiest, most developed country on the continent, with the best infrastructure of any African country and yet in our national sport - football - ours is the weakest national side on the continent.
Why we would ignore our own home-grown coaches to go and contract a coach from Brazil and pay him that much money is beyond common logic and common sense.
The reason for all the errors at Safa is because none of the people in charge at Safa have ever played the game of football at a high level and they have no understanding of the dynamics of football. They are also ashamed of bringing in folk who know more than they do, to expose how little they know.
Safa seems to select coaches on the basis of what they have read about. For someone who loves the game, who has played it at the highest level and who was praying for our independence so we could compete with the best in the world, it is embarrassing to note that today we cannot even hold our own against countries such as Zambia.
Why aren't our home-grown coaches given the chance to gain experience? If they are not given the chance how are they ever going to gain the experience?
Any coach from Brazil worth his salt should be able to win the World Cup with the national side because of the huge Brazilian population and the abundance of good football players Brazil produces, and the large number of football academies they have for youngsters. Brazil can put together three or four equally good national teams because of their huge population.
With close to 200 million people whose first love is football, Brazil has a great advantage when compared to countries like England, Malawi, Holland, Spain, South Africa or, for that matter, Switzerland, with much smaller populations.
One would be much more impressed if a coach like Parreira had taken some of the aforementioned countries and won the World Cup.
I think it is time we give our home-grown coaches a chance to coach the national team. They cannot do any worse than those foreign coaches.
Why is everything from abroad better than what we have? Are we suffering from such an inferiority complex that we would accept any coach from abroad and deny our own the same chance? When is Safa going to learn and when are they going to wake up?
Dr Steve "Kalamazoo" Mokone,
Washington, US
try local coaches
Hardly two years ago, one of the stalwarts of South African football said he never expected coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to complete his contract at Safa. Neither did I.
Hardly two years ago, one of the stalwarts of South African football said he never expected coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to complete his contract at Safa. Neither did I.
We are the wealthiest, most developed country on the continent, with the best infrastructure of any African country and yet in our national sport - football - ours is the weakest national side on the continent.
Why we would ignore our own home-grown coaches to go and contract a coach from Brazil and pay him that much money is beyond common logic and common sense.
The reason for all the errors at Safa is because none of the people in charge at Safa have ever played the game of football at a high level and they have no understanding of the dynamics of football. They are also ashamed of bringing in folk who know more than they do, to expose how little they know.
Safa seems to select coaches on the basis of what they have read about. For someone who loves the game, who has played it at the highest level and who was praying for our independence so we could compete with the best in the world, it is embarrassing to note that today we cannot even hold our own against countries such as Zambia.
Why aren't our home-grown coaches given the chance to gain experience? If they are not given the chance how are they ever going to gain the experience?
Any coach from Brazil worth his salt should be able to win the World Cup with the national side because of the huge Brazilian population and the abundance of good football players Brazil produces, and the large number of football academies they have for youngsters. Brazil can put together three or four equally good national teams because of their huge population.
With close to 200 million people whose first love is football, Brazil has a great advantage when compared to countries like England, Malawi, Holland, Spain, South Africa or, for that matter, Switzerland, with much smaller populations.
One would be much more impressed if a coach like Parreira had taken some of the aforementioned countries and won the World Cup.
I think it is time we give our home-grown coaches a chance to coach the national team. They cannot do any worse than those foreign coaches.
Why is everything from abroad better than what we have? Are we suffering from such an inferiority complex that we would accept any coach from abroad and deny our own the same chance? When is Safa going to learn and when are they going to wake up?
Dr Steve "Kalamazoo" Mokone,
Washington, US