Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has recalled how he dropped a bombshell on SAFA president Dr. Danny Jordaan, telling him a day after the Africa Cup of Nations that he wanted to quit.
Broos lead Bafana to their first medal in 24 years and reinstalled faith and pride in the national team after beating DR Congo on penalties to clinch the bronze medal.
But while many in the country have hailed the Belgian for his achievements, Broos himself wanted to resign from his post.
“I had a conversation with the president – on Saturday, we played the match for third place and on Sunday we were in the hotel and I made an appointment with the president and said ‘look, I’d like to stop’,” he said on the Frank & Franky podcast, as translated into English.
“I think he was lucky that he was sitting down, otherwise he would’ve fallen over.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to experience the criticism I received here over the last two years again’. Now, everything is good. But in March we have a group of friendlies and if we disappoint, it starts all over again.
“And also, I’m alone in South Africa. My family is here [in Belgium]. I’m not going to do that anymore, two-and-a-half months I was not there. But it’s a lot, especially when you have grandchildren then it’s worse.
“And also the opposition of the league is not to understand. I will give you an example: In May, we started to prepare, we still had some friendly matches and two qualifying matches for the World Cup and then the preparations for AFCON.
“The league was scheduled until 31 December. So I decided to write a letter to the league’s CEO to ask to stop after Christmas and there was no reply. When the fixtures came out, first thing I looked at was when they break and they only stopped 31 December.
“I wrote another letter to explain that Sundowns players feature in so many competitions, they need a break before AFCON. 14 days later we receive a response, it starts with ‘we support Bafana Bafana and the coach, but we could not change it due to the sponsors’.
“They also said they discussed it with everyone, which is absolutely not true.”
Broos then recalled how he was not allowed to Orlando Stadium multiple times, saying he was stopped on instruction of Pirates and league chairmain Irvin Khoza, before stating that he told Jordaan he cannot continue to work like this and he wants a meeting with Dr. Khoza.
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“I told the president, I cannot work like this. I want a meeting with the league chairman,” he continued.
“The chairman has promised that it will happen in the next weeks, and we will see. But the intention was to stop [with Bafana]. I already told the stuff before the Congo match that it might be my last game and there was more drama then.
“We agreed with the chairman that I will not sit there for long anymore but the slightest sign that they start with their daggers again, I will take my luggage and leave. We’ll see what happens in the meeting with the league.”
When asked whether he still is the national team coach right now, Broos confirmed that he has not thrown in the towel just yet.
“No I will continue for the time being, but there are a few conditions that need to be met,” he added.