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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
It's been a difficult year for South Africa's national football team which has been knocked out of the African Cup of Nations. The chief executive officer of the South African Football Association, Raymond Hack, has come under fire over the national team's mixed results over the past few months. Nevertheless, Hack is adamant that missing out on the continental showpiece in Angola is not the end of the world. Project 2010 asked him…  Despite the setback in the African Cup of Nations, most people are acknowledging that Bafana have been playing exciting football under Carlos Parreira - and now Joel Santana. How are you going to take this further without being able to gauge their strength in the most important tournament in Africa? A lot of people say major competition is crucial - we disagree. There is a great deal of benefit from friendly internationals, especially against some of the heavyweight opposition we are lining up. The caliber of these teams is of such a high quality and they will give us everything they have got. SAFA has denied the media reports that Carlos Parreira will return to assist Santana, but do you see any other coaches helping Santana in the build up to 2010? No - Santana is the coach. We made the decision and we are sticking with it. We received the same criticism when we hired Parreira. There is a tendency in this country to fire the coaches whenever something goes wrong or we lose a couple of matches. That is not the solution. We are very disappointed about not qualifying for the African Cup of Nations, but it wasn't because we lost against Nigeria on Sunday - it's because of how we performed in the opening fixtures - we have to look at the big picture. Are you frustrated by public sentiments towards Bafana or, for that matter, SAFA? That's the nature of the game. If you win, you are a hero…if you lose, everyone turns against you. What frustrates me is ninety percent of the media have never played they game, but they know it all. For example, one reporter said we played Nigeria with a second-string team - that's ridiculous…it would never happen…but we have to live with it. We also have to put up with all the so-called experts from the class of '96 (the African Cup of Nations champions). But why aren't they successful now? How many of them have been fired as coaches? But they are happy to tell the national coach what to do when they don't have one quarter of his experience. Yes, we are not happy with the situation we are in - it's not what we wanted - but we are dealing it as best we can. more interviews...
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