Confirmed | Coach Molefi Ntseki finally signs Bafana Bafana contract

04 December 2019 - 15:18 By Marc Strydom
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Molefi Ntseki has put pen to paper and can now fully focus on moving the national team forward.
Molefi Ntseki has put pen to paper and can now fully focus on moving the national team forward.
Image: Mahlatse Mphahlele

Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has signed a contract with the SA Football Association (Safa)‚ his agent‚ Thato Matuka‚ has confirmed.

This resolves the coach’s contract situation‚ which for various reasons – including the coach being tied up with camps for matches‚ and a change of acting chief executive at Safa – had been unresolved three months after Ntseki’s appointment as Bafana coach in late August.

Matuka‚ who had met with new Safa acting chief executive Gay Mokoena on Thursday‚ said the deal was finalised on Tuesday.

“We are fine. Both parties are happy‚” Matuka told TimesLIVE on Wednesday.

“We actually sealed it yesterday [Tuesday]. We had pretty much agreed on a deal on Thursday‚ but there was just one outstanding matter that both parties had to go back and investigate‚ and consult and come back on. That has been resolved.”

Asked if Ntseki was happy with the contract‚ Matuka said: “Yes sir.”

Ntseki was appointed Bafana head coach in a meeting of Safa’s national executive committee at Safa House on August 31.

He initially remained on his contract with the Association that had seen Ntseki serve as national Under-17 coach‚ and as assistant to his predecessor as head coach of Bafana‚ Stuart Baxter.

This was partly due to the new coach being tied up overseeing a camp for a friendly against Zambia in early September that was called off by that country’s FA in response to a wave of xenophobic violence at the time in South Africa.

Ntseki oversaw a second camp as he finally got his tenure off to a winning start as Bafana beat Mali 2-1 in the Nelson Mandela Challenge in Port Elizabeth in October.

Last month Bafana began their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Ghana‚ and 1-0 home win against Sudan.

In the meantime Mokoena replaced Russell Paul – who took a job as chief operating officer of the 2022 Fifa Qatar World Cup – as Safa’s acting chief exectuive in early November.

Mokoena was not available for comment at the time of this story being published.


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