Igesund not given enough time, experts say

NELSON Mandela Bay soccer personalities believe sacked Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund was not given enough time in charge.

Igesund was axed by Safa after two years of disappointments at the helm, including failures to qualify for the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil and 2013 African Nations Cup semifinal on home soil.

His contract with the SA Football Association (Safa) expires on August 30.

Safa life member Boya Chetty believes Igesund, who became SA's 23rd coaching casualty in 22 years, has enough credentials to turn Bafana Bafana into a winning team.

"He is one of the best coaches in the country and he has won league titles with various Premier League teams ... more than any coach. He was not given enough time to assemble a team that will meet his performance standard."

Chetty said SA football had its own squabbles between the PSL teams and Safa, that could have led to Igesund's sacking.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University sport manager Mark Tommy said he did not support Safa's decision.

"I believe his mandate of qualifying for the World Cup and a semifinal spot at the Africa Cup of Nations was unrealistic, especially given the space we were in at the time. Igesund had to clean up the mess created by the previous coach [Pitso Mosimane], hence his time was too short to restore national pride with Bafana Bafana."

Tommy said Igesund's track record illustrated that he deserved a second term.

"I still think certain PSL team bosses had an influence in this decision and some of the regular players sabotaged Igesund by failing to honour the national team call for the Australian and New Zealand tour.

"The chopping and changing of national teams' coaches is not healthy for our football."

Former Banyana Banyana coach Nomalungelo Mooi said no coach in the world would be right for Bafana Bafana.

"We can bring the best coach in the world, I don't think he will succeed because our players are not properly developed. Proper foundation is lacking within our national players. We need to dig deeper to the roots instead of embarrassing coaches. We should stop blaming the coaches with everything that goes wrong with the national team." - Mthetho Ndoni