Baxter’s planning disaster

Pirates, Safa put paid to inclusion of Mokwena in squad for Zambian camp Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter’s plan to take Orlando Pirates assistant mentor Rhulani Mokwena to Zambia as part of the national team’s technical staff has turned into a public relations nightmare. It emerged yesterday that the idea had been stopped dead in its tracks. Bafana will participate in a four-nations tournament in Zambia this week and Baxter wanted Mokwena to accompany the team as an observer to gain experience‚ with an eye to him even being national coach one day. But Mokwena will not be on the flight to Zambia today after Baxter revealed that a communications breakdown between the South African Football Association (Safa) and Pirates put paid to that idea. “As everybody knows, this camp has been really‚ really compromised in terms of time for preparation‚” Baxter said. “The warning time for us to know that we were taking part [in the four-nations tournament] was very‚ very short. “That’s made the lines of communication also a little bit short‚ and it’s possible that protocols were not followed 100%. “So at this moment in time Rhulani will not be taking part in the camp.

“We understand the situation at Pirates and want everybody to know that the intention was to bring a young up-and-coming coach to the camp to give him the experience. “It was a positive gesture and I think all parties will look to try to readdress that in the future.” Baxter has never hidden the fact that he had hoped to travel to the King’s Cup in Thailand, where his charges would have met the hosts‚ Slovakia and United Arab Emirates in this week’s Fifa international window. The Briton said the trip to Zambia was arranged in a haphazard manner and that this, in turn, led to a breach of protocols that saw him announce Mokwena as a member of his technical staff when the plan had not been completely finalised with Pirates. “I think I got confirmation myself of the camp about 10 days before we were due to leave‚” Baxter said. “So the actual negotiations had to go very quickly. I think that in a normal world we would have given Pirates greater notice – they felt a little bit that this was sprung on them. “It is understandable because they are in a pressure situation at the moment [Pirates are second on the PSL standings and are challenging for the league title]. “No one is arguing [against his inclusion in the Bafana technical team] – it is just a question of ‘let’s make sure that we do it at the right tempo that suits everybody’.” – TimesLIVE