Reuters Soccer Blog

Parreira’s return condemned by South African media

Carlos Alberto Parreira’s return as South Africa coach has been widely pilloried in the country’s media, a stark contrast to the almost universal approval he received when he took the job the first time round in late 2006.

Parreira has been enticed back in the wake of the firing of compatriot Joel Santana last week, as the World Cup hosts battle to drag their national side out of a spiral of long-term mediocrity.

Parreira was supposed to be the architect of a plan to build a competitive South African side to set the 2010 tournament alight.

But when his wife fell ill, he had little option to quit and return home to Rio de Janeiro.

Failure to properly explain the reasons for his departure, combined with a simmering discontent over the amount of money he was being paid, obviously touched a sensitive nerve, because his return has been widely condemned.

Columnists across the South African media have raged against his re-appointment and, more to the point, the failure of the South African Football Association to appoint a locally-born coach in the wake of Santana’s departure.

UPDATE: Should South Africa have gone local?

(Updates after Parreira appointed)

Joel Santana arrived for what he thought was a routine review of his work with his South African Football Association bosses on Monday and within hours was packing his bags for a return to Brazil, ending his tenure as the 15th coach employed by South Africa in the last 17 years.

The run of poor results in recent internationals plus last year’s early elimination from the African Nations Cup qualifiers, had left Bafana Bafana in deep crisis, a team without any confidence or direction and running out of time before hosting the 2010 World Cup finals.

Santana had done himself few favours, first with his inability to learn passable English even after 18 months in the country and secondly his glib answers to increasingly concerned questions about the progress of the team. His side have looked listless and without direction in recent matches.

Santana was the second coach in the country’s Brazilian experiment, following Carlos Alberto Parreira as South Africa turned to the land of the five-time word champions for the expertise to mould their 2010 team.

Parreira has now returned to the job. He quit in April 2008 after his wife was found to have cancer. She has since recovered and he had indicated over the last days he would be interested in returning to the job.

There was, however, a clamour for a local coach to take over, with popular sentiment believing the experiment with foreign coaches has failed. In the past the deluge of callers to phone-in shows on radio and TV has influenced the decision of SAFA, which makes for a potentially dangerous decision-making.