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Johannesburg - World Cup winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was named on Friday night as the new Bafana Bafana coach.
The Brazilian replaces countryman Joel Santana who quit the post on Monday after a spate of poor results.
SA Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani confirmed the worst-kept secret in South African soccer when he officially announced Parreira's re-appointment at a SAFA national executive meeting held at the OR Tambo Airport.
Nematandani said Parreira, who won the World Cup with Brazil in the United States in 1994, was the only candidate.
"The reason for opting for Parreira so quickly is we have a massive time constraint with the World Cup just around the corner. I will be honest and say that we knew other South African-born coaches were keen to be appointed. But we simply did not have the time to shortlist candidates.
"We (the NEC) decided after a lengthy debate that Parreira was the right person to take us to the 2010 World Cup finals."
Parreira would not be earning the massive R1.8 million per month salary he enjoyed in his previous stint at the helm or the R1.4 million per month that the failed Santana earned each month.
However, Parreira told a Brazilian journalist based on Johannesburg in a telephone interview he would be earning the same salary.
Said Nematandani: "We cannot disclose Parreira’s salary but it will be a lot less than what he earned when he was in charge the last time."
But the SAFA president promised that after the 2010 World Cup SAFA would appoint a South African coach to lead Bafana.
"It is right we start grooming or own coaches for Bafana. We would have preferred a local coach now but with time against us and the fact that Parreira had started this job in February 2007 and had to leave us last April due to his wife’s ill health, it was only right we call him back to finish the job he started."
Parreira is the 17th appointment as Bafana head coach in 17 years since South Africa was re-admitted as a member of world controlling body FIFA - after years of isolation due to the former South African regime’s apartheid policy.
Nematandani said Parreira’s mandate was to produce the best team he could and able to compete against the best in the world at the World Cup.
"We are confident we will have a successful World Cup under Parreira."
On why SAFA believed Parreira would succeed where Santana failed, Nematandani said: "Santana failed because he is Santana and Parreira is Parreira."
The SAFA president also announced that a third assistant coach would be added to help Parreira.
The likely coach is SuperSport United’s Gavin Hunt who is the stand out candidate. Many felt that Hunt should have been appointed instead of Parreira. The two current assistant coaches Pitso Mosimane and Jairo Leal have been retained.
However, Hunt, Clive Barker and Jomo Sono will continue as assessors for Bafana.
Said Nematandani: "We have been impressed by the input of the three assessors in such a short space of time and we have mandated them to continue."
The SAFA boss would not confirm or deny whether Jomo Sono would be appointed as Bafana technical director.
"Those are media reports and we have not discussed that issue."
Parreira won the respect of the players when he was in charge last time round and may revive the low spirits in the players' camp.
Although SAFA want Parreira and his family to settle in Johannesburg as soon as possible, they are hoping he arrives in time to take charge of the squad ahead of the two friendly matches against Japan at the Orlando Stadium on November 14 and against Jamaica in Bloemfontein on November 17.
