The SA Football Association on Sunday denied a report that it had approached former Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to return to work with team head coach and fellow Brazilian Joel Santana.

"We (Safa) have never discussed Parreira returning in any form at our management executive committee level," Safa chief executive Raymond Hack told Sapa.

"I have never spoken to Parreira on this matter. We are satisfied with our fourth place finish in the Confederations Cup and are focusing on helping the Bafana technical team prepare for next year's World Cup.

"Our only link with Brazil at present is that we are finalising a training camp for Bafana there in January."

Parreira said he needed to be with his sick wife when he quit as Bafana coach last April.

City Press reported on Sunday that Parreira would rejoin the national team in September. It quoted a "highly-placed", unnamed source at Safa as saying that the plan was to have Parreira work alongside Santana. The matter had not been discussed at Safa national executive committee meetings, in a bid to keep it out of the media, according to the report.

Many believe Parreira did not have faith in the South African squad to perform well at either the Confederations Cup or the 2010 World Cup and he recommended Santana to take over as head coach.

After a rocky start last June Santana appears to have won support after Bafana reached the semifinals of last month's Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Bafana were beaten 1-0 by Brazil in the semifinals while Spain needed extra time to defeat an improved Bafana 3-2 for third place.