Unsatisfactory results could lead with the dismissal of Ephraim Mashaba

Ephraim Mashaba has guided the South African national team to a number of underwhelming results which has put his managerial position of the squad in danger.

The 65 year old South African manager Ephraim Mashaba on numerous occasions has been labeled as someone who is ‘’detached from reality’’

Mashaba has recently been questioned by a number of journalists in regards to his decision of not voting in favor of Lionel Messi in relation to the latest Ballon d’Or nomination as Mashaba instead voted for C.Ronaldo but the problem is not that he casted his vote for the Portuguese superstar but that his , so in other words, Mashaba doesn’t consider Lionel Messi to be one of the top 3 players in the world.

Every person is free to vote for anyone they want but it’s extremely hard to believe that Messi is not the best performer out there.

The South African national team has recently been undergoing a string of underwhelming results that have put in danger the lifespan of Mashaba in his current position of the national side.

South Africa’s start in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers has been a frustrating one as they had to settle with a goal-less draw against Gambia and later lost when facing off with Mauritania in a match that concluded with the South African team losing 1-3.

The only way that South Africa can advance through the next African championship is if they are able to defeat Cameroon on their upcoming home and away matches which kick off in March.

Mashaba and his team struggled in 2015 as well after failing to deliver in the Nations Cup of that year with losses against Algeria and Ghana and drawing with Senegal.

Spain have the opportunity to become European champions

Spain have the opportunity to become European champions for a third successive time when they go to the Euro 2016 as the defending champions.

The incredible spell of trophies for the team started with the Euro 2008. This was their first major trophy in more than four decades. However, it did not take long for the national team to add more in the space of a few years, as they won the likes of the World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012. The biggest disappointment for the national team after almost a decade came at the World Cup 2014 when they even failed to get past the group.

Vicente del Bosque has just announced his plans to retire from management after the end of the Euro 2016. His contract comes to an end in June and there has been a lot of speculation about his future. Rather than let the speculation continue, the former Real Madrid manager has tried to give the best opportunity for Spain to find a new man to run the national team. It also eliminates any confusion within the squad. Spain will need to go into the Euro 2016 with a clear head since they have a difficult group according to their manager. Spain will be facing Croatia, Czech Republic, and Turkey in this major tournament.

“We will go there with the aim of winning the Euro for the third consecutive time. It would be fantastic for Spanish football. No one has ever achieved this. However, we know we will have to face extraordinarily tough opponents.We’ve drawn two teams who played in the same group as the Netherlands and eliminated them — Turkey and the Czech Republic.Then we have to face Croatia, who are very strong and who, for me, are among the strongest teams at this tournament,” said del Bosque.

Johan Cruyff believes that the €80m price tag on Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba is absurd

Former Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff believes that the €80m price tag on Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba appears to be absurd to him.

The French international is seen as one of the hottest properties in world football. He has been vital to Juventus’ resurgence in the domestic and European competitions. Last season, he almost help the Italian club to win all major titles on offer. It is believed that the player will seek a transfer from the Italian Serie A should Juventus not provide him the path to do so. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Manchester City are some of the giants being linked with him.

All these clubs can easily afford the € 80 million reportedly demanded by Juventus. While Barcelona and Real Madrid have signed players for these figures, City easily have the biggest financial resources amongst all top clubs. However,Cruyfffeels that Pogba is certainly not worth this figure since he is yet to prove himself on a consistent level. The former Manchester United midfielder has been important to Juventus, but he has also been aided by the presence of players like Vidal and Carlos Tevez. It could be argued that their presence has made Pogba look like a much better player than he actually is.

“The figures seem to be absurd. €80 million for Pogba is absurd,” said the former Barcelona manager. City have reportedly submitted on offer in the region of £ 70 million. This would take the fee closer to 100 million in terms of euros. Signing the former United player for this amount of fee would ensure that their arch rivals receive a substantial windfall. Pogba joined Juventus on a free transfer after letting his contract with United expire. Juventus have already lost key players like Vidal and Tevez and they would not want to rip up the entire spine of the team with the sale of Pogba.

Ephraim Mashaba has had a huge headache in recent days

South African manager Ephraim Mashaba has had a huge headache in recent days due to the lack of availability of training sessions and players ahead of the crucial match with Mauritius.

South Africa take on Mauritius in the 2016 Chan qualifiers. This is the preliminary round with South Africa aiming to reach the group stages without fail. The game against Mauritius could be a potential banana skin especially due to the recent developments.Mashaba had to contend with the withdrawal of as much as 10 players ahead of the game. Clubs like Kaizer Chiefs decided to recall their players just ahead of this game.

This meant thatMashaba had to cancel the last few training sessions due to the lack of players. The manager has tried to balance the situation by bringing players from the likes of Platinum Stars and M. Tigers. Bloemfontein Celtic are also expected to provide one more, which would bring the tally to 18 for the time being. Right now, South African do not have the sufficient number of players to even fill the bench. The disruption to the preparation could not have come at a much worse time forMashaba, as he had seen his team only get used to playing with each other under his tactics.

“It doesn’t matter who you play for or against, preparation is very crucial. Normally the day before the match we hold our practice session at the match venue where we are given about an hour, and there is not much you can do in that time, so we had to change the venue so we can have as much time to train as we want. But the flip side is that it is just 24 hours before a match so you also can’t over train – we had to try and find a balance,” said Mashaba.

Shakes Mashaba has come under fire

South Africa’s national team boss Shakes Mashaba has come under fire recently for his failure to take the national team past the group stages at the recent African cup of nations.

Since the country and the World Cup in 2010, there has been little progress made with regard to the national team. It was confirmed once again after a poor showing at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Despite being expected to at least reach the quarter-finals for beyond, South Africa did not even get past the group stages after falling to Equatorial Guinea.

Having been appointed as the replacement for Gordon Igesund only in August 2014, Shakes Mashaba has had a lot of questions about his ability to coach the national team.Mashaba will have a big test of his qualities when South Africa play against Nigeria and Swaziland in the friendly matches towards the end of March.Mashaba will have a great opportunity to put an end to the highly inconsistent form that the team has been showing. A victory against minnows Swaziland will not be seen as a major point, but getting success over former Africa Cup of Nations winner Nigeria will be a major boost to the confidence.

“I am Ephraim Mashaba. Those who still doubt my qualities of coaching the national team are wasting time. People are still questioning whether I am the right person to coach this team or not.Who is the right person? Who is the right person to coach this team? I am South African by nature, I deserve to be here.My colour doesn’t stop me from coaching the national team, I want people to know, it’s one section. I will deal with it with time,” said the manager, whose team’s last win came in a friendly against Zambia before the Africa Cup of Nations.

Ephraim Mashaba as Coach gave New Life to Mashaba

Since the appointment of Ephraim Mashaba as the coach of the South African national football team, his return to the team in his 2nd time in charge of the national side has given the team in South Africa a new breath of life as they have claimed victories over: Sudan, Congo, Zambia as well as managing to knock out Nigeria from the Africa Cup of Nations.

In the history of the South African team, they have managed to be crowned as the champions of the Africa Cup of Nations on one single instance which occurred back in 1996 and Mashaba believes that he can help the national team on achieving their 2nd crown of the African competition.

“In 1996 we set the standard that we are championship material. With this team we are trying to revive that spirit and show that we are one of the best.” Ephraim Mashaba as he voiced his optimism concerning the near future of his team and their upcoming competitions.

South Africa will be facing off with Iraq in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup after Iraq managed to overcome Iran with a scoreboard of 3-3 which forced the match to be extended with injury time added on but it made no difference as it was a penalty session which decided the winners as Iraq was able to edge the victory.

Iraq won the Asian Cup back in 2007; they have the experience and know what it takes to become the champions of this tournament. South Africa will have to work hard in order for them to book their spot in the finals.
Ephraim Mashaba is well aware of the stiff competition that his squad will be facing with from here on out but he is determined on making history with South Africa as the head coach of the national side.

Yaya Toure dropped for 3 Games for Misbehaving

When Yaya Toure was suspended for three matches for the way he had behaved in the CSKA game, it was supposed to be a disaster for City.

For a team which was already struggling quite a lot, to lose one of the most experienced players, it was certainly some blow. But, it has actually proved to be blessing in disguise.

Now, if the City fans sit and look back at that, they would think it was not such a bad thing to happen to the team at that point of time.

The two European games that Toure has not played due to his ban are the games against Bayern Munich and Roma and the Sky Blues have won both of them.

Had Toure been available, Manuel Pellegrini would never have opted to start with the Brazilian duo of Fernando-Fernandinho.

But, in the absence of the veteran, the City manager has had to go with those two players and the way they have played, it would be very unfair if any of those two get dropped in the knockout games for Toure to get in.

Yes, Toure is experienced and the experience is needed in crunch games, but, the reality is that this season, the Ivorian has just not hit the kind of form that is expected from him. In patches yes, he has shown that he can still be useful, but, he has been nowhere as good as he was the previous season.

Toure can’t be slotted in the attacking line of City either. The players there are doing a fine job already. Sergio Aguero is at the top of his game and so is David Silva.

However, it remains to be seen if Pellegrini is brave enough to leave out Toure when he is available.

Shock at Senzo shooting

The captain of the South African national football team Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead a few days ago on October 26 according to police reports, the even occurred at a friend’s house during an attempted robbery.
Senzo Meyiwa was featured in the latest African Cup of Nations qualifying matches of South Africa and was the goalkeeper for Orlando Pirates.
A reward of around $25,000 is being offered in exchange of information that can lead to the people that were involved in the shooting. It’s believed that 3 men were involved in the robbery with one of them remaining outside of the house while the remaining 2 entered and shot the goalkeeper of Orlando Pirates before they fled on foot.
The South African President Jacob Zuma expressed his grief and sadness concerning the death of Senzo Meyiwa as he said: “We mourn the death of this young footballer and team leader whose life has been taken away at the prime of his career. Words cannot express the nation’s shock at this loss. Senzo was a very kind person. I have never seen Senzo being sad or angry in the camp.”
There is a gun violence problem which is getting more and more troublesome and this is just one case which happened recently, another high profile event which occurred that made its way to headlines of websites and newspaper of all over the world is the South African Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius who was recently jailed for 5 years after having shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The murder rate of South Africa has been dropping but still remains being one of the most violent countries in the world with the police registering more than 17,000 murders last year which more than 7 times the rate in USA.

SAFA Confirmed Deal With Siyaya TV

The South African Football Association (SAFA) officially announced and confirmed a new deal involving broadcasting rights with Siyaya TV that will allow the football governing body of Siyaya TV to transmit South African national team matches. The deal is reported to be worth $93.6 million.
This deal will allow Siyaya TV to have the exclusive rights for them to broadcast all of the matches of the South African team.

This will allow the African side on having more exposure with their respective matches whether it might only be friendly encounters or important international games. The deal also includes written terms which state that the South African Football Association will help and assist Siyaya TV in obtaining licensing rights of events from FIFA, UEFA and CAF.

The new deal with Siyaya TV will remove the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation from the rights that they own which was going to run up until April of 2015. These rights allowed the football entity on being able to transmit matches of the national football team. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) only granted SAFA $4,206,825.94 each year which is astronomically lower comparing it to the new contract with Siyaya TV which is $93.6 million.

Some years ago the rights were being undervalued due to government policy which required national team games to be transmitted by a public broadcaster as the national teams were termed ‘national assets’. The new deal will see the SABC needing to reach a secondary agreement with Siyaya TV to transmit any Bafana Bafana games.

The new contract is expected to take effect starting from May of 2015.

Igesund Sacked!

The manager of the South Africa national football team, Gordon Igesund, has been sacked from his post. The Association in South Africa made that announcement yesterday evening.

Igesund was given the charge of the South African team a couple of years back i.e. in June 2012. He was expected to guide the team to the Round of 4 in the 2013 Africa Cup and also to the 2014 World Cup finals, but, he couldn’t do either of that.

South Africa got beaten by Mali in the penalty shootouts in the quarter final round in the Africa Cup and they also failed to qualify for the third round of the CAF World Cup qualification after having secured only 11 points in their 6 matches in the second round.

So, considering all these things, people were already expecting that the South African association would not give a contract extension to Igesund and the same happened.
The chairman of the association, Mr. Danny Jordaan, had a meeting with Igesund in which he made the 57-year Old aware that he was going to be terminated from his position.

In the press conference in which Igesund’s sacking was announced, Jordaan also said that the hunt for the new manager would start pretty soon.

The chairman said, “We are going to look for a new man for the post pretty soon.”

The two men who are understood to be the strongest contenders to replace Igesund are Stephen Keshi (Nigeria) and Carlos Queiroz (Portugal). They are currently in charge of the national teams of Nigeria and Iran respectively and would be in Brazil in about 10 days’ time for the FIFA World Cup.

Keshi is a hugely respected manager in the African continent and many experts reckon that the chances of him grabbing the South Africa job are very high.