WATCH: Safa must not play us for fools – Hugo Broos was not first choice

The South African Football Association will tell you that Hugo Broos was their first choice to coach Bafana Bafana, but Phakaaathi would suggest some wool is being pulled over our eyes.

The Belgian was announced this week as Bafana Bafana. head coach, and is expected to arrive in the country next week to iron out the finer details of his contract and begin his work.

Broos, however, not the main name linked to the Bafana job when Molefi Ntseki was sacked at the end of March. That was Carloto s Queiroz, believed to be the number one candidate on the list of the Safa technical committee set up to find a new coach.

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Safa even called a press conference to announce their new man, but then cancelled it, citing Covid-19 issues. Queiroz is said to have turned down Safa, because he didn’t feel he had enough time with the side ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, which were at that stage scheduled to begin in June.

Attempts to get Pitso Mosimane are said to have been simply met with a straight defensive bat by the former Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana head coach, now in the top job at Al Ahly, and apparently not willing to return to coach Bafana.

There was also Herve Renard, but the Frenchman was also said to be happy in his current job with Saudi Arabia.

That left Benni McCarthy as seemingly the main man on Bafana’s radar, but as talks of his deal collapsing emerged, it became clear that Broos, whose name was discussed by the technical committee,  was now the leading candidate.

He has continental pedigree too, having won the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2017. And hopefully he can build a similarly strong Bafana team. However, we should not kid ourselves that Broos was Safa’s first choice – after all, Phakaaathi understands that he was not even on the initial five-man list handed to the Safa National Executive by the technical committee.

Hugo Broos was at least the fifth-choice candidate to coach Bafana, if not the sixth, with Kaizer Chiefs head coach Gavin Hunt also on Safa’s list.