#BringBack Clive Barker
- By Southern Times --
- Jun15,2018 --
- 0 Comments
Cape Town - The South African Football Association (SAFA) is having sleepless nights going into the qualifying matches of the AFCON 2019 with a coach who fails on big occasions.
With Bafana Bafana's early exit in the recently ended Cosafa Cup, under Coach Stuart Baxter, South Africa could only settle for the silver plate of a tournament they hosted.
Since his reappointment last year, Baxter failed to win the Cosafa Cup 2017, failed to qualify for CHAN 2018, World Cup 2018 and now Cosafa Cup 2018.
SAFA has no choice but to re-hire Clive Barker to coach Bafana Bafana.
Barker is the most successful Bafana Bafana coach in history.
He is considered the father of coaching, with a recent Kick Off Magazine report highlighting the fact that more than 70% of the players who were capped at the national level under him have remained in football, as coaches and administrators.
Club coaches such as Clinton Larsen (Golden Arrows), Steve Komphela (Kaizer Chiefs), Gavin Hunt (Wits), Eric Tinkler (Supersport United) Shaun Bartlett (Tuks) and Andre Arendse (goalkeeper coach at Wits) all played under Barker at some stage and recognize his coaching style as an inspiration to their own coaching careers.
Further, the 1996 African Cup of Nation (AFCON) winning team consisted of very experienced players, who had achieved a lot in their careers prior to representing the nation.
Hence, it was easier for Barker to motivate the team, and this was on top of Barker’s tactical and technical prowess.
In 1997, Barker ensured that South Africa would make their debut World Cup appearance for the World Cup 1998, which was hosted and won by France.
He was sacked in December 1997 and missed out on the opportunity to defend his 1996 AFCON glory and also missed out on leading the team at its maiden FIFA World Cup.
During Barker’s reign, South Africa was ranked 16th in the world and first in Africa.
Since the days of Barker, by far the best coach Bafana Bafana has ever had, things have rather turned sour for the national team.
Today, they are 81st in FIFA world ranking and 18th in Africa. Turning back to the current era, a lot has changed.
In fact, South Africa is no longer the most feared football nation in Africa, as it once was.
These days, however, soccer commentators and experts regularly and correctly predict that South Africa would be knocked out in the group stages of international tournaments like Cosafa.
That is if they manage to qualify for that tournament in the first place.
For Bafana Bafana to be great once again, football pundits called on SAFA to give the coach the powers to appoint professional technical staff, consisting of qualified soccer experts with noteworthy achievements in the game.
Most importantly though, is that SAFA must in the process of re-igniting the most loved sport in South Africa, broaden and widely sell the programme, Vision 2022, to all corners of the country, they said.
SOURCE: https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/bringback-clive-barker