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Johannesburg - After almost a month after the national team's mix up in their game against Sierra Leone, Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane has taken full responsibility for the team's failure to qualify for AFCON 2012.
The team's management believed that a draw in their final group game
against Sierra Leone would be enough to see Bafana Bafana qualify for
the AFCON final in January. Instead the draw was not enough, a mistake
that the South African public did not take lightly.
Speaking at a press briefing at SAFA House on Thursday morning, Mosimane said
he had intentionally kept quite to follow the SAFA protocol, this
despite the fact that SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani publicly
apologised over two weeks ago. In fact, SAFA CEO Robin Petersen
apologised on Mosimane's behalf two weeks ago as well.
"I did what I did in that game because I believed that a draw would
take us through. I take full responsibility for what happened and I
share the grief with the nation on failing to qualify for the AFCON 2012.
"I apologise for the misunderstanding, which all the teams and
associations believed, that the team with a better goal aggregate would
qualify if we finish on the same points. We played a defensive second
half thinking that if Niger lose to Egypt then we will qualify. I am
sorry for misunderstanding the rules and letting the country down,"
Mosimane concluded.
