South African Under-23 coach, David Notoane, has stepped down from his position following the team’s failure to qualify for the Under-23 Africa Nations Cup.
South Africa were knocked in the second round of qualifiers by Congo Brazzaville on goal difference. The former Santos and Supersport United forward announced his resignation on Marawa Sports Worldwide 94.7 with Robert Marawa.
“We failed in the call of duty to serve the country; therefore we failed millions of people. It’s a huge dishonour for South African football,” Notoane said.
“And we apologise for our disservice for our people of South Africa who deserve joy in this current state of our lives and football gives them that joy. While there are many reasons for non-qualification, that will only serve as excuses at this point.
“The lack of proper support off-field when we started the process for example; 1) late engagement with the PSL to support the Under-23 program; 2) the need to monitor overseas players was met with dead action; 3) The need for junior teams to be active has been echoed.
“The Under-23 is a bridging programme for Bafana but it’s treated like a development team. This team spends a long time inactive. We need to improve proper management of the team administratively, unless this is corrected, Bafana will find itself relying on players with PSL or overseas experience.
“I want to personally thank the president [of Safa] Dr Danny Jordaan and technical committee. This marks the end of my appointment which was until further notice for this campaign without any contractual obligation.”