South Africa Magazine’s Ian Armitage talks with SA Football Association (Safa) chief executive Leslie Sedibe about the World Cup, life after it and the future of South African football.

This year’s World Cup was one of many firsts. South Africa became the first African nation to host the tournament, vuvuzelas made their mark on the footballing world (so did the jabulani ball), and Spain captured football's Holy Grail for the first time (I’ve resisted the need to mention Paul the Octopus).

Perhaps the most significant first, however, was that, for the first time at a World Cup, Africa had six representatives - Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and (of course) South Africa.

Sadly the continent under-performed, registering just three wins from 18 group games (I have to point out that strong football nations Italy and France also crashed out at the group stage). It was clear Africa had failed to learn from previous mistakes: only Ghana actually prepared well and they enjoyed a fine tournament.

South Africa were history’s lowest-ranked World Cup hosts - our 83rd place was worse than the United States (23rd) in 1994 and Japan and South Korea (32nd and 40th respectively) in 2002.

But Bafana Bafana left football's greatest stage with their heads held high, missing out on a place in the last 16 on goal difference.

The performance is being mooted as a “building block” for better things by fans, commentators, players, managers and officials.

“The France game was fantastic and a great source of pride,” says SA Football Association (Safa) chief executive Leslie Sedibe. “We avoided becoming the first World Cup hosts to never win a game. And, though we did become the first hosts to miss out on qualifying for the second phase, we made the nation proud.”

Bafana certainly had a chaotic World Cup build up. When Carlos Alberto Parreira, who left his role of coach after the tournament, was reappointed in October 2009 (after leaving the role in 2008), he took charge of a side that had lost eight in nine matches. However he turned things around and went unbeaten for all but one of his 15 internationals (the Uruguay game being his one defeat).

DEVELOPMENT PLANS IGNORED?
What was clear going into the World Cup was that developmental plans had been ignored.

Stuart Baxter, who led South Africa between 2004 and 2006, sums things up: “As soon as I mentioned the identification programme, they said we had one. The same for the academy, even though there weren't really any.”

Sedibe was one of the men brought into change this, joining Safa in January. “The goal in essence is to restore Bafana Bafana as the No1 team in Africa and in a respectable position in the world,” Sedibe says.

Key to this is, he adds, “going back to the basics” and developing football at grass roots. “Investing in young soccer players is a key aspect to South Africa's football future,” he explains.

"Without developing players from the regional structures you cannot get talented players that you need in the national team. You need to invest at grass roots level in order to produce a pool of talented players.

“We need to invest in grassroots football in South Africa perhaps more than other nations. Sadly, many budding soccer stars never play competitively because they can't afford the kit or boots, or they lack access to essentials such as goalposts or even a ball or pitch.

"We have a mandate to promote, advance, administer, coordinate and generally encourage the game of football in South Africa.”

SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT
Things are improving. South Africa is – under new coach Pitso Mosimane - building on the promising foundations of the World Cup. “Today the team is ranked 52. We also are in the top 10 in Africa, which is pretty much where we want to be for this year. Going into the New Year we want to continue to improve our Fifa ranking. This is actually one of the key targets in terms of the contract of the coach. The coach has a performance agreement in place and it is geared towards insuring everybody is accountable and that everyone delivers against performance targets.”

Sedibe says Mosimane has been set various targets by Safa. Those targets are that Bafana Bafana qualify for the next two Africa Cup of Nations and the 2014 World Cup.

“The World Cup preparations were hampered,” says Sedibe. “When Carlos was reappointed Safa made a commitment that we would ideally like a South African to be trained and developed to coach the national team. That’s where Pitso Mosimane came into things – he was academy coach at the time. One of the criticisms was that we lacked identity and we needed a system of play and coaching that had identity. Carlos knew his involvement and worked hard to make sure we achieved that sense of identity in our football.

“Pitso has a four-year contract and his first job is to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, then the same competition in Libya in 2013,” Sedibe adds. “Qualification for 2012 is going well and we have a big game coming up against Egypt at home, which if we win will put us in a very strong position.

“Pitso’s deal also spans the all-important qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. And we think it is important we achieve that.”

Since the World Cup Bafana have beaten Ghana in a friendly game, beaten Niger in an Afcon qualifier and played out a draw against a strong Sierra Leone side, which recently beat Egypt. “All in all, since the beginning of the year, the team has played 18 matches and has only lost once and that was against Uruguay in the World Cup; they finished fourth in the tournament,” Sedibe says.

GRASS ROOTS
While the revolution in Bafana remains on the right track, the same can’t be said for the junior national teams. The national under-20 and national under-17 have both struggled and the Banyana Banyana have been woeful.

Sedibe has a real passion for his job. He is determined to change things at all levels.

“There is no organised, competitive football in many cities across the country and we are changing that,” says Sedibe. “That will help.

“We are pouring money into townships, into poorer schools — the traditional sources of talent in South Africa, channels that have stagnated and become clogged in the post-apartheid era.

“We have also implemented grass-roots structures,” he adds.

A centralised development plan is now in place.

“We want to vastly improve the progression of South Africa in footballing circles,” Sedibe continues. “Since winning the African Cup of Nations in 1996 we have really slipped away. We certainly have the financial resources and an infrastructure in facilities that other African countries can only dream of, so we have an advantage where it come to becoming a footballing force on the continent again.”

HOW BEST TO INVEST THE WORLD CUP WINDFALL?
Safa has received an estimated R1 billion windfall from the World Cup. Sedibe says the money will be spent with the “long-term” in mind rather than near-term. “We are also working on getting the right sponsorships needed to cover development,” he says.

“We have had World Cups in USA and South Korea and both have continued sporting success after hosting those tournaments. Do we think we can do the same? Well we are investing funds gained into grassroots and investing back into football. We are learning from them, particularly the USA.

“Interestingly, 17 November is international Fifa day and we are playing against the USA,” he adds. “It is no coincidence that the USA is coming to South Africa. The reason we are playing them is that we are in the process of entering into a structured relationship with them and one of the things the USA will be doing with us is helping us with our development programmes. There are major lessons we can learn from the USA. We have asked them to partner with us, to help us, and bring our game forward.”

Sedibe truly believes that investing funds gained during the World Cup back into football will return South African football to its “rightful place”.

END OF THE ROAD
There has been a lot of press speculation that Sedibe will quit his role in December, when his current contract expires. When Safa president Kirsten Nematandani announced Sedibe's appointment in January, he said "although it was a 12-month contract, Sedibe was going to be around for a long time as part of our new vision for South African soccer".

Sedibe is coy about his imminent move from the association, saying he is still engaged in talks.

“It’s true that I wanted to resign, but there have since been discussions and attempts of persuasion and we’ll see what happens,” Sedibe says. “My contract is 12-months. Will I renew it when it expires in December? We are in discussions with the administration. It is a matter of public record now that I indicated my desire to move on. I had asked if I could move on, but they asked if I could stay and so we are in discussions with the leadership in terms of my future role. I would obviously want to continue to play a role in south African football.”

Let’s hope he does.

“I don’t believe we are too far off. We have improved massively in the space of 12-months,” Sedibe says. “All it needs is a well run administration and we need people that are committed to football, the team and the players and just generally for people to be held accountable for what they do.”

The tide of South African football seems to be turning - lets hope it isn’t another false dawn and that a tales of power, greed, ambition, political connections and long-established rivalry are a thing of the past.


This article also appears in Issue 8 of South Africa Magazine, out now