South Africa sack coach Molefi Ntseki after failing to qualify for Afcon

Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has been sacked, South Africa Football Association (Safa) announced on Wednesday.

This follows Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Sudan in Omdurman that saw Bafana fail to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) when a draw would have seen the South Africans reach the tournament finals in Cameroon.

“The decision was taken at about 10 am. This was an NEC decision, it was taken in a round-robin,” said Safa CEO Motlanthe.

Bafana, hit by some withdrawals due to a Fifa circular saying clubs did not have to release players over Covid-19, had also failed to beat an even more understrength Ghana at FNB Stadium on Thursday.

That result, though, had been left mostly academic by the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) head-to-head ruling, with the mathematical permutations indicating that  Bafana needed a draw or win away to Sudan in their closing match.

Ghana, who beat Bafana 2-0 in the opening game in Cape Coast in November 2019, topped Group C with 13 points.

Sudan qualified in second place with 12, Bafana were third with 10, and Sao Tome and Principe had zero.

In mitigation, Ntseki faced some of the toughest, if not the toughest, circumstances encountered by a Bafana coach.

On top of that, the former SA under-17 national coach also lacked experience at senior level.

He was appointed to replace the head coach he was assistant to, Stuart Baxter, in late August 2019.

Baxter resigned in early August 2019, weeks after steering Bafana to a quarterfinal place at the 2019 Afcon finals in Egypt.

Ntseki immediately faced challenges.

His first match was called off, with a full-strength Bafana squad in place, when Zambia and then Madagascar pulled out of the friendly in September 2019 in response to attacks on foreigners in SA.

Source: asempasports