Parreira not happy with deal
2007-09-26 19:27
Johannesburg - Bafana Bafana will continue with their participation in the Cosafa Cup semi-final against Botswana at Super Stadium on Saturday after an uneasy compromise deal over fixtures doused the dispute between the PSL and Safa that was threatening to split South African soccer down the middle.
But in making the announcement, Bafana general manager Sipho Nkumane revealed that coach Carlos Parreira, who threatened to pull out of the fixture altogether if the matter was not resolved, was "not at all happy" about having to make do without five of his selected players instead of what was initially 11.
"But in the circumstances," added Nkumane, "we had to give and take a little in order to avoid a crisis that was mushrooming out-of-hand."
The compromise, which was negotiated between Safa CEO Raymond Hack and PSL Chief Operations Officer Professor Ronnie Schloss, has resulted in the postponement of Friday's Telkom Knockout game between Ajax Cape Town and Free State Stars to next Thursday - thereby freeing three of the Cape Town club's players to join the Bafana squad.
Bloemfontein Celtic have also agreed to release Tumelo Nhlapo and Lebohang Mothibantwa, with the players rejoining their club after Saturday's Cosafa clash to possibly play a second game in two days for their club on Sunday.
But Safa's main bone of contention has not been removed - with the Telkom Knockout crowd-puller between Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows still to be played figuratively a veritable stone's throw from the Super Stadium at Loftus little more than an hour after Bafana's Cosafa Cup international.
And, what is more, Chiefs players Itumeleng Khune, Jimmy Tau, Mokete Tsotetsi and Siphiwe Tshabalala and Swallows' Bevan Fransman that Parreira named in his squad for the Botswana game will still not be released by their clubs for international duty.
- SAPA