Da Gama to drive the under-23s

Bafana Bafana assistant coach Owen da Gama will lead the charge in reviving the idle South African under-23 side as qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics Games approaches.

The path for the junior national team is still a bit muddied but the South African Football Association will accept Bafana coach Ephraim ''Shakes" Mashaba's proposal that his right-hand man must take up the challenge.

Guiding the under-23 side will be a mammoth task, but Da Gama, who has never coached a national team at any level, will not be hung out to dry.

An insider revealed that Mashaba would soon announce his plans for the junior national teams and hinted that Da Gama would lead the under-23s, while Thabo Senong, the second Bafana assistant, will likely take over the under-20s.

"Shakes will probably work very closely with Owen because he has coached the under-23s before," the insider said.

''He has made it clear that he would like to see his two assistants get involved with the junior teams so that there can be a good synergy with the senior team."

The under-23s were last in action during the 2011 Confederation of African Football Championships in Morocco, with Mashaba calling the shots.

They failed to qualify for the London Olympics the next year and have been almost nonexistent since. Mashaba was also in charge of the South African Olympic side in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

Last month Caf conducted a draw in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the continental qualifiers, which will be followed by the eight-nation tournament to be held in the Democratic Republic of Congo next year.

SA have a bye into the second round, where they await the winner of the clash between Swaziland and Zimbabwe. If SA win they will take on Senegal for a spot in the 2015 Caf Championships. Only the top-four finishers in the eight-nation tourney will represent Africa at the Rio Olympics.

Safa CEO Dennis Mumble said yesterday plans for friendly matches to prepare the under-23 team were afoot, but that there were financial challenges.

"Remember that this is one of the teams that does not have a sponsor and we are hoping to raise funds for this team soon. I will meet with Shakes to map the way forward, but essentially our recently successful under-20 team will be the nucleus of the under-23 team, because at the moment there really isn't an under-23 team.

"It costs us about R1.4-million a game and when you prepare a team sometimes you have to play as many as six matches. There is a programme that has been proposed and needs to go into the budget because this team doesn't have a sponsor."

Safa do face a potential hurdle in securing players for the planned friendly matches, which are yet to be confirmed, if this junior team qualifies for the eight-nation tournament.

The Premier Soccer League has adjusted their fixture schedule to end early in May to allow SA to have a full-strength team during the qualifiers.