Thaindian News

Cape Town, March 8 (IANS) The South African sports ministry is keeping a close watch on the activities of the country’s football association, ministry spokesperson Paena Galane has said.

Galane Wednesday reminded South African Football Association (SAFA) that it is owned by the public and not by its leaders.

“We needed to re-clarify to SAFA that SASCOC (the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) will play a watchful role over them, just as they do with other sports federations,” Galane was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“SASCOC will oversee each and every one of them (the sports federations) because there is no way that the minister will run around after the different federations.”

SAFA has been under increased pressure following a string of poor performances by the national team Bafana Bafana in the past year.

The national squad failed to qualify for the second successive continental showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations, while the junior sides — the SA Under-23s and SA Under-20s — failed in their respective Olympic qualifiers and regional COSAFA (Council of Southern African Football Associations) Championship tournaments.

The South African team reached its highest ranking of 16th in the world in the 1990s, but since then it has steadily declined.

SAFA said earlier that it has worked out a plan to become a world force again.

All the national teams would be in the top three in Africa by 2020 and inside the world’s top 20 in the longer term, according to the plan.

“We want to be in the top three at all national levels on the continent and inside the top 20 in the world,” said SAFA’s chief executive Robin Petersen.