The South African Football Association (Safa) is expected to name a replacement for Joel Santana on Friday.

Brazilian-born Santana resigned on Monday after he met with the Safa management committee. This followed a dismal 16 months in charge of the national soccer team, that has seen the country plunge down the rankings to 85th place.

The ranking is Bafana Bafana's lowest ever, with South Africa dropping 12 positions from last month's 73rd placing.

Santana's resignation was widely expected after he returned to Johannesburg last Thursday with a demoralised squad who lost both matches on a Scandinavian tour to Norway and Iceland last week.

The 1-0 loss to Iceland in Reykjavik last Tuesday night was the final straw. It was South Africa's eighth defeat in their last nine friendly internationals since reaching the semifinals of the Confederations Cup in June.

Said Safa spokesman Morio Sanyane: "Santana resigned after he met with the president (Nematandani and his management committee) on Monday. The parties had a heart to heart talk and Santana decided to stand down.

"A new coach could be named when the Safa executive meet on Friday."

Downfall was predicted

In the meantime Santana's two assistants coaches Pitso Mosimane and Brazilian born Jairo Leal will take charge of the national squad.

Santana's downfall was widely predicted.

Santana replaced fellow Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira in June last year. Parreira who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 is one of the favourites to take charge of South Africa for the next eight months.

Santana's first match in charge was a tough away African Nations Cup (Afcon) qualifier against Nigeria in Abuja. Bafana Bafana lost that match 2-0 and then struggled through a dismal qualification tournament, then failed to qualify for the Nations Cup finals in Angola the next January.

The writing was on the wall during the Afcon qualifiers when Santana introduced his defensive formation.

The fact that he evaded questions on team selections at media briefings further alienated the local press. Santana was on the verge of being fired in June during the Confederations Cup after his ultra defensive team were held to a 0-0 draw with lowly Iraq in the opening match played at Ellis Park on June 14.

But a 2-0 win over minnows New Zealand in the next game saved Santana’s neck. Bafana Bafana went on to lose 2-0 to then world first ranked country Spain 2-0 and were beaten by 1-0 by Brazil in the semi finals.

South Africa produced their best performance under Santana in the third placed play-off when Spain needed extra time to defeat the team 3-2 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on June 28.

But with only a fortunate 1-0 win over 131st-ranked Madagascar last month in Kimberley, from the last nine games, it was too much for Safa who had elected a new president in Nematandani recently at the annual general meeting.

Nematandani made no bones about the fact Safa were determined to give back Bafana Bafana their pride. Last week they appointed three assessors, former team coaches Jomo Sono, Clive Barker and Gavin Hunt to assess the team.

That was the writing on the wall for Santana who kept telling the media when he returned from Iceland he would not quit.

But those turned out to be famous last words.

Santana was in charge of 27 matches but failed to beat any top opposition in an official international.

Sapa

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