Another loss makes it seven out of eight for Bafana Bafana. Will Joel Santana get the chop? Probably, but then why was he hired in the first place? asks Rob Peters.

Oops. Another loss for Bafana Bafana and the heat is turned up a notch on coach Joel Santana. Will he be sacked before the 2010 party even begins? It's more than likely, but then why was he hired in the first place?

New Safa president Kirsten Nematandani is certainly not Santana's number one fan (he threatened to fire the coach in his election manifesto), and the recent decision to appoint the trio of Gavin Hunt, Clive Barker and Jomo Sono to assess Santana illustrates the governing body's concern over recent results, or lack thereof.

If anyone can explain to me why a no-name foreigner, with absolutely no international experience, was hired — on the say-so of another foreigner who had just left us in the dwang — in the first place and is now being supervised by three locals, please, let me know.

Safa, as is their way, will now turn on the coach and the players, and will lay the blame on everybody but themselves, as they attempt to distance themselves from the mess that is Bafana Bafana, less than a year away from the biggest tournament to be hosted in Africa.

Sure, Santana has not done the job — neither have the players to be fair — but hell, Safa hired the guy. What did they expect?

The Brazilian still struggles to string a sentence together and, by all accounts, is stubborn as a mule. To add to that, coming into the job he would have had absolutely no understanding of local football.

When his predecessor, Carlos Alberto Parreira, dropped the team after serving out just 15 months of his contract, it would have made sense to fall back on a local coach, somebody who understands the local game, its players, and the politics of the region. There are a host of men capable of doing the job. At the very least they could do a better job than Santana is doing.

The appointment of Hunt, Barker and Sono indicates that Safa agree with me, so again, why was Santana given the job in the first place? It seems to be a question nobody is asking as panic over recent results dominates most headlines.

Santana, meanwhile, seems quite optimistic despite how badly things have been going. He was given Nematandani's endorsement last week (the kiss of death for football coaches) and is relying on upcoming friendlies to whip his team into shape before the tournament proper in 2010.

"This was a friendly match. I have one more against Iceland (on Tuesday)," Santana said, after the loss to Norway, "and two more before the end of the year. Next year, we'll have five more friendlies before the World Cup. We are using these to prepare. These are training matches and the bigger picture is the World Cup."

'Judge me on the World Cup?' Uh oh, I've heard those words before…

Going forward, it is hard to imagine what good sacking Santana will do. Time has run out to hire a new coach and I cannot see anyone wanting the job anyway, although Safa do seem to be willing to throw money at the problem.

And for me that is the biggest issue at play. Safa clearly believes that the coach makes the team. Little seems to be getting done at grassroots level to improve the local game. In reality, it doesn't matter who the coach is because he can only do so much within the confines of his job.

Hiring Santana was the biggest mistake made in a litany of errors ahead of the World Cup. We all saw this coming, but unfortunately the guys in charge did not.

Nope, Safa needs to carry the can on this one, I’m afraid. Nice one guys, you're putting on a hell of a show. I cannot wait to see what you have planned next.

Is Safa the real problem or should Santana shoulder the blame? Leave all your comments below!

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