Burkina Faso national coach Paulo Duarte left South Africa with a parting shot as he blamed the SA Football Association (Safa) for their abysmal performance in the 3-0 loss to Bafana Bafana at Ellis Park Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Burkinabe camp was a mess a day before the match as they only had 10 of their players in the country with four more arriving the morning of the game.
The fiery Portuguese latched on Safa for apparent troubles in getting visas for some his squad players, even though part of sorting travel documents should also have been organised by the Burkinabe Football Association.
Burkina Faso were paid a in the region of R500 000 as an appearance fee by Safa.
“On Tuesday I wanted to stop the team from playing but went through with respect to the South African people,” Duarte said.
“The problem was in the planning and organisation because we had problems with visas and flights,” he said.
“We wanted all our players from different parts of Europe to meet in Paris and depart from there, two of my players were injured so that was not your fault.
“We missed the opportunity of a good game against Bafana, they are a side with good dynamism without any great stars playing for them.”
Duarte blamed just about everyone besides his football FA and his players, even though there were rumours of a player revolt. The majority of his European-based players did not want to travel to South Africa because it was too far a distance and wanted to play for their clubs this weekend.
With the talk now on rankings and the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations set for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon just around the corner, Duarte fell short of accusing Safa of dirty tactics to improve their rankings.
The Burkinabe are fourth on the continent with Bafana seventh.
“If it was Safa's strategy for us to lose our players before the game then it worked for them. I'm saddened by the result, and this will obviously affect the rankings.”
Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane said that the Burkinabe should accept being outclassed by his enthusiastic team with goals coming from striker Katlego Mphela (two) and captain Siphiwe Tshabalala.
“We were superior so don't buy that excuse of Safa not being organised,” said Mosimane.
“They also had 60 percent of the players from the last three matches so it wasn't a weak squad, we could also say the same because we were missing the likes of Steven Pienaar, Yeye Letsholonyane, Davide Somma and others.
“I'm happy that he spoke about the rankings because that is the thing now with African football.”
Bafana were solid even though they were hardly tested by the visitors.
This was their last fixture before the 2012 Group B Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Niger (away) next month and Sierra Leone (home) in October.
Bafana could cement their qualification to the Equatorial Guinea and Gabon tournament next year in Niger.
“I'm happy, but we can do better,” Mosimane said.
“We were superior and played a short passing game that suited Thulani Serero and Daylon Claasen, and a long passing one that suited Mphela.” Both Serero and Claasen were making their first starts in the national jersey and impressed, Claasen in particular with some silky touches from midfield.
Serero is expected to play a leading role against Niger with Steven Pienaar not available through injury. – Sapa