All is Not Rosy for South Africa Coach Parreira

By: Laurie | November 27th, 2007

You would think things would be cheery-happy in South African football these days. The World Cup is heading their way, and the national team could lose every game between now and June, 2010 and still qualify. Gotta love that host nation automatic qualification thing.

Alas, these are not happy times for South Africa’s coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira. South Africa still has to go through the qualification process because performance there is necessary for qualification for the 2010 African Cup of Nations. And it could be pretty embarrassing if they were to end up in the World Cup while finishing bottom of the group, no? Based on recent performance, that is a possibility. (Although they did beat Canada last week. There is that.)

And so the pressure on the Brazilian coach builds.

The chorus of criticism has heightened to such an extent that even those observers who pleaded for patience with the coach are starting to question some of his rather curious decisions. But Parreira has ignored all the discontent and seems hell-bent on doing everything in his power to further irk the media. [After a recent match] the Bafana coach gave the waiting media the middle finger and did not attend the post-match press conference after the national team had meekly surrendered to the US at Ellis Park.

Of course now he says that missing the press conference was a “misunderstanding.” And I’m sure with that middle finger salute he was just scratching his face. Like Jens Lehmann.

But now the coach is striking back, spreading the blame around by pointing fingers at the structure of South African football — everything from the lack of youth training to the football “culture” to the South African league’s dependence on foreign talent. He wants things to change, but says it won’t help for 2010.

“It won’t help for the World Cup, it’s too late to make a youth league. It’s not for me that I’m fighting for this, it’s for South Africa’s future.”
Despite having in the Premier Soccer League, one of the richest leagues in Africa, Parreira sees a dependance on foreign talent as strangling local talent.
“They are one of the best organised leagues in Africa, but they don’t care about youth teams; they prefer to buy players from abroad,” he said.

I’m sure he’s right. But I’m also sure that when you’re under attack, the best strategy is to go on the offensive.
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