Igesund under pressure

agreement with the national football association, drawn up last year after Pitso Mosimane was fired when Bafana Bafana (The Boys) could only draw at home to Ethiopia in a World Cup qualifier.

The national team was in such bad shape at the time that many commentators thought Igesund, the only coach to win the South African Premiership with four different clubs, was crazy to accept the last-four clause.

Perhaps the Durban-born former striker, who played professionally in Austria, had taken the time to check the Cup of Nations records and realised his chances of a semi-final spot were pretty good.

Of the 30 countries who have hosted the 28 tournaments — Ghana and Nigeria (2000) and Equatorial Guinea and Gabon (2012) were co-hosts — 22 have reached the semi-finals.

And some of those semi-finalists were not exactly African football powers with a Mali team far less formidable than today coming fourth in 2002 and an even weaker Burkina Faso side achieving a similar feat four years before.

South Africa were crowned African champions when they last hosted the 22-day tournament in 1996, even though they had no previous experience of competing in it having returned from the apartheid-induced wilderness just four years before.

Host nations have won the Cup of Nations 11 times with Egypt being the last seven years ago, finished runners-up three times, third five times and fourth three times.

Another five exited at the quarter-finals stage and three — Ethiopia (1976), Ivory Coast (1984) and Tunisia (1994) — suffered the ultimate humiliation of going out after the first round.

While the early Ethiopian and Ivorian departures were no surprise, Tunisia went into the 1994 Africa Cup as favourites and then-ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali left the VIP box in a rage at half-time during one game. Home advantage is a twin-edge sword — teams playing well draw capacity crowds and receive passionate support while the reverse can occur if a side struggles.

There is consensus among current and past South African coaches and players that the tournament opener against Cape Verde Islands at the 93 000-seat Soccer City Stadium in Soweto this Saturday is crucial.

Top and medium-price tickets for the fixture have been sold out, suggesting Bafana Bafana (The Boys) have been given the benefit of the doubt by South African supporters despite poor build-up results.

A win this weekend would trigger an immediate spike in interest, leading to an almost certain “full house” for the January 23 game against Angola at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, the best football-supporting city in the country.

Victories over Cape Verde and Angola could clinch a round-of-eight place, leaving silver-haired 56-year-old Igesund just one win away from securing his job ahead of a tough campaign to secure 2014 World Cup qualification.

“I think there is a great vibe in the country regarding our national team and the boys will be very difficult to beat if huge crowds turn up and start blowing their vuvuzelas (plastic horns) and getting behind the team,” Igesund said. Clive Barker, coach of the 1996 Cup-winning side, says South Africa can do it again provided they get off to a winning start, and his view is shared by Neil Tovey, who received the trophy from then-president Nelson Mandela. — AFP.

How African Cup of Nations hosts fared in previous editions
1957: Sudan (third)
1959: Egypt (champions)
1962: Ethiopia (champions)
1963: Ghana (champions)
1965: Tunisia (runners-up)
1968: Ethiopia (third)
1970: Sudan (champions)
1972: Cameroon (third)
1974: Egypt (third)
1976: Ethiopia (first round)
1978: Ghana (champions)
1980: Nigeria (champions)
1982: Libya (runners-up)
1984: Ivory Coast (first round)
1986: Egypt (champions)
1988: Morocco (fourth)
1990: Algeria (champions)
1992: Senegal (quarter-finals)
1994: Tunisia (first round)
1996: South Africa (champions)
1998: Burkina Faso (fourth)
2000: Ghana (quarter-finals) and Nigeria (runners-up)
2002: Mali (fourth)
2004: Tunisia (champions)
2006: Egypt (champions)
2008: Ghana (third)
2010: Angola (quarter-finals)
2012: Equatorial Guinea (quarter-finals) and Gabon (quarter-finals)