The SA Football Association (Safa) closed ranks over Bafana Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka who this week embarrassed the association, national team and the country.
Tseka apparently forgot to book a training venue, disrupting the national side’s preparations for two friendlies — against Sierra Leone (yesterday) and Botswana (Tuesday) in Johannesburg.
He refused to talk about Monday’s blunder, said to be the latest in a litany of incidents that caused chaos in the team.
This culminated in Lille, France in March when Bafana head coach Hugo Broos describing Tseka as the “most incompetent manager he’s worked with”, according to a well-placed Safa source.
Stadium Management SA CEO Bertie Grobbelaar told the Sunday Times on Tuesday that Bafana could not train at the Dobsonville facility on Monday because the ground had not been booked by Tseka.
“Bafana booked Dobsonville on September 8 for training sessions on September 20 to September 22. There was no training session booked for yesterday (Monday, September 19).
“I saw the media statements (on Tuesday) saying there is something wrong with the pitch. There was nothing wrong with the pitch. The stadium was not booked,” said Grobbelaar, who also confirmed that Monday’s Bafana press conference was booked just two hours before it started.
Tseka’s slip-up on Monday was said to have left Broos fuming since it was not the first time there have been reports of error by Tseka, especially when Bafana are playing abroad.
“I didn’t know that we couldn’t train on the pitch today (Monday). If you ask me where we are going to train I can’t answer you because we didn’t do it,” Broos told a press briefing on Monday.
All of this is just gossip and Safa will not dignify it with a response
— Safa communications manager Mninawa Ntloko
The Bafana coach’s comments were denied by Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe, who insisted on Tuesday that the team had trained. “No, Bafana trained yesterday (Monday),” said Motlanthe.
Tseka didn’t respond to the Sunday Times when asked to comment on what happened on Monday and failed to answer questions sent to him about other accusations of incompetence. Instead he blocked this reporter on WhatsApp.
Well-placed sources at Safa told the Sunday Times that among a litany of complaints Tseka is accused of is a series of blunders:
- Bafana nearly missed their away World Cup qualifier against Ethiopia on October 9 last year after Tseka allegedly failed to apply for their visas in time.
- Tseka failed to secure a work permit for coach Broos and his then assistant Cedomir Janevski in time, resulting in them working without permits in two World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Ghana in September last year (three full months after their appointments in May. City Press reported on this in July).
- Tseka allegedly failed to organise training venues for Bafana in France in March, where the national side were slaughtered 5-0 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.
- In spite of leaving early to set things up for Bafana before their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) match against Morocco in Rabat in June, Tseka couldn’t secure a training venue for the team. Bafana lost the opening qualifier 2-1.
- Bafana nearly missed a Caf African Nations Championship (Chan) match against Comoros on July 22 when they arrived minutes before kickoff in Comoros. The match was scheduled to start at 4pm but Comoros were generous in agreeing to move it to 5.30pm, giving Bafana time to get ready. Bafana were scheduled to travel on a Wednesday, two days before the match, but had to return to their hotel from the airport because of a mess-up with their travel arrangements, allegedly caused by Tseka.
Immediately after Bafana managed to beat Comoros 1-0, Tseka posted on his personal Facebook page boasting that Bafana “against all odds (went) right from Comoros Moroni Airport straight into the field and won the game”.
In the same post Tseka, who was a Safa national executive committee member in Free State before replacing the retired Barney Kujane as Bafana’s manager about a year ago, also challenged his detractors at Safa “to bring it on”, saying he was being used as a scapegoat for the association’s disorganisation.
Motlanthe was sent questions on Thursday about the allegations against Tseka. He chose not to answer any of them, passing the buck to Safa’s communications manager Mninawa Ntloko.
On Friday afternoon, after a series of meetings, the Sunday Times learnt (from insiders) that they had brought Safa president Danny Jordaan into the debacle.
Ntloko emailed a curt comment. “All of this is just gossip and Safa will not dignify it with a response,” he said.
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