The South African Football Association (Safa) will announce the name of the new Bafana Bafana coach next week.
The technical committee chaired by Jack Maluleka will deliberate on and evaluate the nine coaches who have made presentations to the association and choose a suitable candidate to succeed Hugo Broos.
The committee will submit the name of the successful candidate to the CEO Lydia Monyepao who will present it to the national executive committee for ratification.
Five of the hopefuls made their presentations to the technical committee in person while six conducted theirs online.
The new coach should be appointed at least before August 5
— Jack Maluleka, Safa technical committee chair
While Pitso Mosimane, who launched a coaching manual book on Wednesday, has emerged as the frontrunner for the top job, Maluleka declined to disclose the names of the other eight candidates.
“We are going to deliberate on all the names and settle on one. We don’t have to bring a lot of things to the NEC. We must just inform them that this is the chosen candidate,” said Maluleka.
”We want the new coach to be named as soon as possible so that he will at least have a month ahead of the start of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers.
“The new coach should be appointed at least before August 5; they’ll have a month to prepare. We have 80% of the players. We have a team to qualify [for Afcon].
“Most of the coaches that presented to us said we saw the team and stated confidence that they will be able to take Bafana forward. There is nothing to panic about.”
Safa do not have the luxury of time and can ill afford to delay appointing the coach with a six-match programme between September and December.
We are going for the qualifiers in September and we must give anyone who is supposed to take over the team room to prepare
The qualifying campaign for the Afcon showpiece featuring 48 teams in 12 groups will commence in September. The competition proper to be staged in east Africa across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will have 24 countries contesting from June 19 to July 17. Bafana will play Guinea, Kenya and Eritrea in group D.
“We are going to finalise our recommendation and simply pick a name we agree on. We will recommend to the NEC that this is the date when the coach must start,” said Maluleka.
“We are going for the qualifiers in September and we must give anyone who is supposed to take over the team room to prepare. The contract of Hugo is coming to an end on July 31. He is in the country for the funeral of Jayden Adams on Saturday.”
This week Safa president Danny Jordaan dismissed reports that Broos’ contract has been extended by one year.
“One thing I can say is that there is no such a thing that Safa signed a one year contract with Broos. It doesn’t exist. It’s nonsense. And it’s better that these nonsense are not put out there,” said Jordaan.
Safa issued a statement categorically denying reports as “false, unfounded and misleading”. The football governing body added “to set the record straight, Safa has not issued any contract to any coach in respect of the Bafana Bafana head coach position”.
“Coach Hugo Broos remains under contract with Safa until the end of July 2026, in accordance with his existing agreement.
“The association’s governance processes regarding the Bafana Bafana technical team have not yet been concluded. Therefore, no decision has been taken, and no contract has been issued or approved by the national executive committee … Safa remains committed to transparent communication and will make an official announcement on the Bafana Bafana coaching positions once the appropriate internal processes have been completed and the relevant decisions have been taken by the association’s structures.”
Asked whether Broos has submitted his report, Maluleka said “that report will not hamper our progress [of appointing the new coach]”.
“That report is for us [to keep]. Our process must go ahead to appoint a coach. We are finalising it now. The presentations by coaches started way back, before the World Cup. Even when I was at the World Cup, two presentations were made to the committee. We’ve been working and are now concluding our task.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.