Soccer
De Sa: SAFA went for quick fix
2009-10-26 12:38
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Johannesburg - Wits head coach Roger de Sa on Monday said the South African Football Association have gone for a quick fix by rehiring Brazilian World Cup winner Carlos Alberto Parreira, as Bafana Bafana’s head coach.
But De Sa stressed that the country must rally behind Parreira who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994.
“We must make the best of this new appointment and get behind Parreira. At the end of the day we are all South Africans and must show our patriotism and support Bafana and the new coach,” De Sa said.
Parreira takes over from countryman Joel Santana, who quit after 17 disastrous months in charge.
Parreira left Bafana last April due to his wife’s illness but accepted a contract to take Bafana to the 2010 World Cup finals.
Said De Sa: “In my opinion Safa are looking to Parreira to wave his magic wand. It is like putting on a new tyre when the road needs repairing.
"Safa have done no development of players or coaches. Maybe Parreira will do well, I do not know.
"However, under Santana the structures at national level collapsed. We need a five to six year plan for not just Bafana, but from the grassroots, to get our soccer back into shape.
"Hiring Parreira will not make everything right overnight. To me this is not the way forward, but we need to back Parreira.”
But De Sa, a former Bafana goalkeeper and goalkeeping coach, added Safa should have appointed Pitso Mosimane, the current national assistant coach.
“Pitso is ready and should have been promoted when Santana left.
“We have eight months to go to the World Cup and I agree Santana had to go, but I had hoped Safa would have shown some confidence in a local coach as in my mind a coach like Pitso, who has been involved with Bafana over the past two years, deserved a break.”
But De Sa said Parreira would be a big improvement on Santana who showed his arrogance by refusing to speak to local coaches or accepting advice.
“At least Parreira, when he took charge of Bafana last time, had meetings with PSL coaches and discussed Bafana with us.
"In that respect Parreira is a professional and can only do better than his predecessor.”