A new coach for South Africa’s national men’s football team will be unveiled next week after the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) postponed this week’s event due to COVID-19-related disruptions.
The announcement was due to take place on Saturday but the prevailing situation arising from the pandemic forced SAFA to push the event forward.
“The Bafana Bafana coach announcement scheduled for Saturday, 24 April 2021 has been postponed due to global Covid-19 travel issues,” SAFA said in a statement on Friday.
“We will reschedule the announcement to next week and further updates will be provided here. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
South Africa began searching for a new coach following the dismissal of Molefi Ntseki late last month after Bafana Bafana’s failure to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
SAFA previously said the position had attracted “extensive interest” from high profile coaches around the globe in addition to local trainers.
Former Real Madrid manager and Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz is reported to be the frontrunner to take the job.
Queiroz coached South Africa during a two-year spell from 2000, leading them to the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations in Mali, where they reached the quarterfinals, and qualifying for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea.
However, he was dismissed before the World Cup and went on to become an assistant of legendary British manager Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
South Africa is set to begin its qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in June. The 1996 African champions are in Group G together with Ghana, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.
South Africa is scheduled to kick off its campaign with an away encounter against Zimbabwe in Harare on June 8 before hosting Ghana the following week.
