The South African Football Association's executive committee meet on Saturday to review Bafana Bafana's poor performance at the African Nations Cup. The committee is expected to decide on the fate of Carlos Queiroz as coach, although no announcement will be made until later.
Speculation has been rife that he will be fired, with Jomo Sono taking the country to the World Cup. But while that appears to be what the public wants, experience has taught that firing a coach so close to the world soccer showpiece could backfire.
Saturday Star writer Jermaine Craig gives view on what should happen to Queiroz.
- It has been mentioned so many times before this week, but here it goes again: South Africa fired a coach just before the World Cup the last time and that certainly didn't work, did it?
As Clive Barker has since proved at club level, a good coach doesn't become a bad one overnight, and Queiroz should at least see out the World Cup.
- When they axed captain Steve Waugh from their one-day side this week, Australia's cricket selectors showed that players should be every bit as accountable as coaches.
Bafana Bafana's players looked an ordinary bunch at the Nations Cup and displayed little fight, although it must be said it is the job of the coach to lift them.
- While the South African Football Association can hardly be an organisation one could easily equate with professionalism, there is no denying Queiroz's credentials in that regard.
Local coaches such as Jomo Sono and Clive Barker should be roped in to inject some pride back into the side, but it would be foolish to abandon Queiroz's soccer acumen entirely.
- The money is another factor. Can a country like South Africa - with our many social needs - really justify paying what is rumoured to be around R3-million to get rid of one man whose contract only has a few months to run anyway?
Such a course of action would appear to be extravagance of the highest order.
- When Queiroz arrived in the country, he constantly referred to words like "passion" and "movement", but there has been little of either in evidence.
Our country's footballers are not as bad as the African Nations Cup results in Mali suggest, but while Queiroz should stay, he needs to be bolder in his selections to achieve this.