“World Cup qualification high on the agenda” – SAFA president Jordaan

First up, Bafana Bafana play Nigeria away in an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier on June 10. Recently-appointed Bafana coach Stuart Baxter will have to ready his troops for the key clash without the luxury of time on his side.

Jordan recognised that Baxter will have the odds stacked against him in his first game in charge.

“The coach has recently announced his team and this is the first big test for him,” said Jordaan.

“I remember when Gordon Igesund was appointed; his first task was against Brazil away in Sao Paolo. It was a huge challenge for him even though the team played well and lost 1-0.

“Looking back at the last three matches, we did well against Nigeria and I think we have a good chance against them. I think the psychological issues around playing against Nigeria are gone now. Most of the Bafana Bafana players that have been selected have played against Nigeria on multiple occasions.”

Jordaan said he was excited to see how Baxter would test the depth of South African football.

“Of course, beyond the AFCON qualifiers, we have the CHAN qualifiers and we have indicated that we should look at CHAN to broaden our pool of players. We would not expect the coach to use the players pursuing the FIFA World Cup and AFCON qualification to also pursue CHAN qualification because that would be quite a stretch on the players.

“Looking at the past COSAFA Cup, we won with basically our Under-23 team and used it to prepare the Under-23 for the Olympics and now we use it to broaden our pool of players going forward.”

It will then be on to the small matter of qualifying for the World Cup, a feat no Bafana team has achieved since the 2002 edition excluding their automatic qualification as hosts of the 2010 World Cup.

“Then, of course, the big test is towards the end of the year, qualification for the World Cup in Russia. Again, we have four points with two matches against Cape Verde home and away and a home match against Burkina Faso still to take place.

“I think if we can get through those three matches then the last away match to Senegal in Dakar shouldn’t be as difficult. So it is indeed a daunting task and quite a demanding period for Bafana Bafana.”

As for the Under-20 team who returned to SA on Monday after being eliminated in the first round of the Under-20 World Cup in the Korea Republic, Jordaan said there was still potential there. Amajita managed just one point from their three matches where they lost 2-1 and 2-0 to Japan and Italy respectively but were able to hold Group D log leaders Uruguay to a goalless draw.

“I don’t think they performed to their full capability. I believe that the team is capable of much more and a better performance than what we saw but obviously we still need to sit with the technical team to find out what went wrong.

“However, this will serve as a basis for the next Olympics. Many of these players are 18 and 19 and the Olympics is of course for Under-23 players so the likes of Rivaldo Coetzee and a few other players can still make it into the Under-23 to ensure we have a strong team.

“But of course the core of the Under-23 squad will be from the Under-20 players who went to the World Cup. We are proud of the fact that saw some very talented players there who are also playing regularly in the PSL as well as abroad. So we have a good crop of players that are being closely monitored by our technical team.”

While qualifying for the 2018 World Cup could prove a daunting task, Jordaan said the following edition in 2022 should be non-negotiable for South Africa.

“Ultimately what we are saying about Vision 2022 is that 2022 is a World Cup year and we said by then, we must have a team that qualifies for the World Cup and takes us to the final round of the World Cup and therefore, our teams must start not only qualifying for major tournaments but make an impact. We have been to the Under-17 World Cup, Under-20 World Cup and the Olympics in Rio.

“However, mere qualification and participation are not where Vision 2022 ends, we want to be a serious player at the events and go to the final stages. That is the final objective of Vision 2022.

“Underlying this is the acceleration of the number of coaches we train, a number of referees we train and if you look at the period we are in, you will notice a number of coaches that we have trained.

“We are also encouraging former players to come into football and be coaches with the appropriate qualifications so that they can accelerate the broad pool of players.”

The National Technical Centre at Fun Valley south of Johannesburg will also help development said Jordaan. The 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust helped fund the centre which is due to open in October.

“Our National Technical Centre at Fun Valley will help greatly towards this vision. We are going to roll out the pitches there and invest further recourses that we receive. We have already invested more than R85 million into the National Technical Centre and we will probably invest another R150 million in the next five years so that it is a state of the art facility for all our teams.

“They will train there with all the medical and scientific support systems and we, therefore, should be able to deliver a world class team by 2022.”