'I’m not going to entertain any questions about the coach’s future,' says Safa CEO Dennis Mumble

The South African Football Association (Safa) have no option but to back Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter in the face of the immense public backlash to the past week’s World Cup qualifying defeats against Cape Verde‚ Safa CEO Dennis Mumble has said.

Just three months into Baxter’s tenure‚ 2-1 defeats against Cape Verde in Praia on Friday and by the same scoreline in Durban on Tuesday have left South Africa’s 2018 World Cup chances hanging by a thread.

This was made worse by Fifa on Wednesday night ruling that Bafana’s lone Group D victory – against Senegal in Polokwane in November – has to be replayed due to refereeing irregularities.

The public backlash of anger at the losses against 114th-ranked Cape Verde has largely centred on Baxter.

Mumbled was asked about the way the qualifying campaign has gone‚ and whether‚ if Bafana do not qualify‚ he is concerned about the impact that might have on the coach.

“I’ve been looking at social media for the last few days since this happened and on this Football Africa (page)‚ you get a thousand comments there‚ and you see the things that are out there‚” Safa’s CEO said on Thursday.

“You know‚ we must be clear that the whole country is not happy about the way things have happened so far.

"And we are not happy‚ quite obviously about the performance.

“But please don’t ask me about the coach and the future of the coach.

"It’s too early for us to get to that point‚ and I’m not going to entertain any questions about the coach’s future.

“But what we are going to do is we’re going to lean on people‚ including the players‚ to perform.

"Because they’re playing on behalf of the country‚ and it’s this country’s emotions that they are playing with.

“And we must take that seriously. So I have done quite a lot of work over the last few days so that we don’t repeat that performance of this past week.

“But it’s not something that we’re happy with.

"We can’t be happy about that performance.”

The public backlash has certainly put Baxter on the back foot very early into his tenure.

Mumble said Safa would come out in support of their coach.

“We absolutely have to support the coach.

"It is just too early in the game to go and question the status of the coach‚" he said.

“But here you can’t go and do something any different now. Now we have to go and think positively.

“We have to go there and see what all of us have to do to improve that team‚ including myself.

“What was the role of the players‚ what was the role of the roleplayers behind the scenes? I’ve started that process and I’m taking a look.

“Unfortunately I didn’t go to Cape Verde so I’m getting reports on things that we need to improve on.

“But clearly games are won on the field and lost on the field. We didn’t perform to the standard. So now we need to make sure that we guarantee that standard the next time around.

“It’s been a dream of ours – we must qualify for the World Cup.

"And we are still going to shoot for that even though our backs are against the wall right now.” - TimesLIVE