Axe hangs over Safa big gun

The South African Football Association emergency committee recommended last night that controversial vice president Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana be suspended.

This recommendation follows the fiery comments Nonkonyana directed at beleaguered Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund at the weekend.

Nonkonyana told a TV sports programme that should Bafana fail to win next year's African Nations Championship, to be held in South Africa in January, Igesund "should do the honourable thing" and quit.

The commission sent a letter recommending Nonkonyana's suspension to the newly appointed Safa national executive committee last night.

The NEC has until 5pm today to ratify the decision taken by the emergency committee yesterday.

Safa CEO Dennis Mumble told The Times last night that the NEC will announce its decision tomorrow.

Ordinarily, Safa would have waited until the next national executive committee meeting - to be held next month - before taking a decision against a senior figure such as Nonkonyana.

But the emergency committee felt Safa could not afford more negative publicly over the matter and elected to take the decision as speedily as possible.

Igesund's performance review is believed to be in its final stages and Nonkonyana's outburst might have made a mockery of the process.

Igesund was quoted as saying it was "absolute nonsense" for Nonkonyana to suggest he had a mandate to win the championship.

A senior Safa official told The Times last night that some within the executive felt that Igesund has been treated with kid gloves for far too long.

The insider said the coach's critics will push for punishment for his media utterances.

Nonkonyana has a long history of publicly criticising Bafana coaches when they are not performing and his outbursts often led to the sacking of the mentors.