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| Dean Furman - Man of the match |
BAFANA Bafana coach Gordon Igesund has a contract until 2014 and intends to see it through, he said after his side’s 4-1 victory against Botswana in Durban on Saturday was not enough to progress to the final World Cup qualifying round.
Igesund has the backing of South African Football Association (Safa) president Kirsten Nematandani, who said he sees no reason for the coach to not complete his contract.
"Gordon has a contract until 2014 and I don’t see why we should be discussing the coach’s future," Nematandani said on Sunday.
"In my own opinion he has done a very good job."
When Igesund was appointed in June 2014 he was given a mandate by Safa of reaching the semifinals of this year’s Africa Cup of Nations on home soil, and qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
"I’ve got a contract until 2014," Igesund said. "I had a mandate to get us the semifinals of the Africa Cup of Nations, and I didn’t do that. I thought we might have been a bit unlucky to have lost on penalties (against Mali in the quarterfinals)," the Bafana coach said.
"And in the World Cup, I couldn’t have done more than what I have to win three out of four games. Whatever anyone wants to do or say they’re entitled to do that.
"I know that after the Afcon, I was told by Safa that they were very, very happy with the way things were going, and I should continue until 2014. So the way I see things there are no mandates any more. I’m here until 2014."
Now that Bafana have not reached the Brazil World Cup, calls will continue to grow for Igesund to throw in the youngsters en masse.
The coach continues to maintain that the national team is not a development tool, and young talent needs to come through from more efficient feeder systems and successful youth team structures.
"Our under-17, under-20 and under-23 coaches and national teams need to be more competitive in the sense that we need to have competitions for them. They need to go and play in Europe and in tournaments against the best of the best," Igesund said.
"We need to get to a situation where these players progress from each level, and you don’t have to spend months and months trying to show a player how to play as a playmaker, a winger or a wing-back.
"When they come through, they’re seasoned, they’ve got the experience of playing international football and they just need to get to the next level.
"This is not going to happen overnight. But I believe we have made progress already. We are in the process of finalising who will coach the national youth teams. We don’t want the situation we have had where a coach wants R10, so we go for a coach who will accept R2. We want top class coaches.
"I know this is a short period of time, but I’m very ambitious and positive about a lot of things, and I think in the next 18 months to two years our rankings have got to be in the top 20 in the world, maybe top three in Africa. Slowly but surely we’ve acknowledged our mistakes, we’ve got a (Safa technical) master plan, and we’re putting people and structures in place."
Other international match results
Israel 1, Azerbaijan 1
Central African Republic 1, Ethiopia 2
Sierra Leone 3, Equatorial Guinea 2
Tunisia 0, Cape Verde Islands 2
Gambia 2, Tanzania 0
Ivory Coast 1, Morocco 1
Burkina Faso 1, Gabon 0
Niger 2, Republic of Congo 2
Nigeria 2, Malawi 0
Angola 4, Liberia 1
Senegal 1, Uganda 0
Brazil 6, Australia 0
Source :BDlive.co.za
Tags : Bafana, Gordon Igesund, Brazil, World Cup ,Coach, South Africa, Safa, dean furman
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