As lifespans go, there are shorter: hummingbirds, goldfish, opposition journalists in Harare. But Bafana Bafana coaches aren’t too far from the top of that list, and despite some frantic protests from assorted spokespeople at Safa that’s nothing official, it would appear we’ve added another to the dearly departed: the Brazilian’s had enough, apparently, and has skipped town. The only surprise? That nobody saw it coming.

South African football has long been the refuge of slightly eccentric foreigners with mixed credentials — Ted Dumitru heads that particular list — but in and amongst have been three genuinely decent coaches. Carlos Queiroz came, took a sustained broadside from the media, and left (although in retrospect, it was great training for a modest spell in the cauldron that is Real Madrid), Stuart Baxter discovered just how smooth and organised Safa can be, and finally had enough; and now Carlos Alberto Parreira, a man with a World Cup win to his name, has decided to call it a day.

History, then, suggests that the high-profile foreigner won’t be around for anywhere near the length the initial contract suggests; in this case, through to 2010. Working with Safa, dealing with a capricious media fraternity, and living up to the vastly inflated expectations of football fans, makes for a considerable challenge, and that, more than his CV, justified the R1.8-million a month Safa had to fork out for the Brazilian. It also meant, however, that a few months’ work would add up to a reasonable pension, and with every passing paycheque, the prospect of early retirement surely grew.

The story broke through Parreira’s wife suggesting her husband was homesick, and missed his grandchildren; and while his 65 years hardly have him primed for a home (if Sir Alex is the benchmark, Parreira has a decade or more at the top), it’s quite feasible that Bafana’s coach simply had enough. Power cuts, traffic, an unpredictable organisation to work with — 2010 might have offered a splendid opportunity to define his legacy as a coach, but for a grandfather a long way from home, with another two years to grind through, it might all have seemed just a little too much.

But why now? Well, his best result as coach — and Bafana’s best result in as long as anyone can remember — came in what now appears to have been his final game, the 3-0 win over Paraguay, and so he leaves on a reasonably good note. And it still allows a moderate window for the replacement to fashion something from Parreira’s work, and forge a team that can muscle through the group stages and into round two come the World Cup.

According to Safa’s procedural handbook (and despite innumerable examples to suggest that such a publication doesn’t exist, Mark Gleeson assures me he’s seen a copy), the sacking/firing/sudden departure of a national coach requires an immediate phone call to Jomo Sono, to see if he wants the job, and if so, which of his mates he wants on board as ‘technical assistants’. But as Jomo usually requires a shorter tenure — glorious emergency job if successful, the previous coach’s fault if not — they’ll have to open it up to a fuller field. A field all well aware that the previous man was taking home R1.8-million a month.

That man will leave with a modest record, and while the Paraguay result makes for a winning farewell, Parreira leaves South African football with a sense that, just possibly, he was beginning to get somewhere with a team that’s been very difficult to squeeze results out of. Yes, he’s let us down, and it’s a blow for 2010 — but South African football has us primed for taking knocks, and while this one was more unexpected than most, it’s not the most earth-shattering piece of news we’ll hear this year. At which point you’ll excuse me; at R1.8-million a month, I have a job application to fill in.

  • Hope is a dangerous commodity to be throwing round in South African rugby, and with three teams lurking in the Super 14 backwater, and the Sharks having just lost their first game a week prior to meeting the Crusaders, now might seem a particular inopportune time to be venturing a little optimism. But for a team that started the competition so inauspiciously, the Stormers have effected a remarkable turnaround, Rassie Erasmus’s street cred growing with every game. A gritty win over the Hurricanes, a strong, hard-working squad, a weak Highlanders side this weekend: after a very barren spell, Cape Town might just have reason to smile by the time the semifinals arrive.

  • As you read this, I’ll be dozing gently in the back row at the South African Golf Summit at Fancourt, working the last of my Augusta jetlag out of my system, amongst the powerbrokers of South African golf. A stellar collection of local and international golf authorities (and me) are gathered for a couple of days to explore a shared vision for the sustained future of the game, debate relevant strategies for taking golf into new territory, and spend the small hours of the morning in the hotel jacuzzi with several bottles of French champagne. All of which can only help South African golf.

  • Contact Dan at dan@metropolis.co.za

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