Was sacked Bafana coach Ntseki offered the SA under-20 job?

01 April 2021 - 07:00 By Marc Strydom
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Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said he was not part of a confrontational meeting with sacked Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki.
Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe said he was not part of a confrontational meeting with sacked Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki.
Image: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images

SA Football Association (Safa) CEO Tebogo Motlanthe and technical committee head Jack Maluleka not only said they were not part of an apparently confrontational meeting between the association’s leadership and sacked Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki on Tuesday, but denied they knew it existed.

TimesLIVE was informed the heated meeting late on Tuesday, in which the Safa leadership and Ntseki could not see eye to eye, played a part in the coach’s sacking announced by Motlanthe and Maluleka at Safa House on Wednesday.

However, the pair denied any knowledge of the meeting.

They also avoided answering a question on whether former SA under-17 coach Ntseki had been offered the U-20 head coaching job, but then that offer was later withdrawn, as indicated to TimesLIVE by a source.

Ntseki was released from his contract on Wednesday on the back of Bafana’s failure to qualify for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

“Yesterday I was never part of that meeting. I would never talk [about] a meeting which I am not aware of. I don’t know of that meeting,” was Motlanthe’s denial in response to a question on whether the meeting played a role in Ntseki’s sacking.

“With all administrative issues in dealing with this decision I will hear the mandate from the national executive committee (NEC) and deal with that.”

Maluleka also said he was unaware of the meeting, and could not talk about it.

“I’m not aware of the meeting so I can’t talk about the meeting,” he said.

Maluleka was asked if Ntseki was offered the U-20 job, but appeared to dodge the question.

“No, no, like I said, as a technical committee we never met with the coach.

“We know that as a coach he has to come after the tournament [or qualifiers] and report to the technical committee, and give us a report.

“We never had such meetings with him.”

Asked if that meant Ntseki had then been fired without having had an in-person report-back on the qualification campaign, Maluleka said: “Like I said earlier, the appointment of the coach is done at the level of the NEC.

"The recusal of the coach, or dismissal or termination of the contract, is due to contractual obligations, it’s at that NEC level.

“At our level at technical we deal with technical matters.

Bafana’s 2-0 defeat to second-placed finishers Sudan in Omdurman on Sunday saw SA finish third in Group C of the Nations Cup qualifiers, with Ghana first. 


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