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| PARREIRA's difficult début in South Africa |
The 64-years-old Brazilian Carlos Alberto PARREIRA, the new coach of the Bafana Bafana has had a very difficult start in his new job in South Africa.
The very first day he took up his post in January in his office which was then located in SAFA's (South African Football Association)office near Soweto he could not work out because of power outages. Since then the SAFA has moved into its newly-built US$11 million SAFA Housenear the Soccer City Stadium which will host the opening match and the final of the World Cup 2010.
PARREIRA who signed a four-year deal with SAFA (with a US$252,000 monthly salary as admitted by SAFA's chief executive Raymond HACK) entered South Africa with his fellow Brazilian assistant Jairo LEAL as tourists, and therefore were not allowed to be employed even by SAFA without a work permit. Effectively according to South African law a foreigner needs to obtain that permit before taking any employment, on pain of a fine of US$28,000; any compagny recruiting a worker without a permit is also liable for a fine. Nevertheless PARREIRA and LEAL who had been warned that they face arrest if they do any work without permit held a training session with a 23-men squad and attended a number of local games to identify potential Bafana Bafana players. So they started their new job without valid papers.
SAFA's spokesman Mario SANYANE explained that PARREIRA's work permit had been held up as they were waiting for documents from Brazil to process the paper. About this special item MANTSHELE TAU, spokesman for the South African Department of Home Affairs explained to BBC Sports why South African authorities have decided to treat PARREIRA's file smoothly. "We have taken this decision on the best interest of the preparations of the 2010 Worl Cup." But, added he, "We are going to penalise SAFA for their convention of the Immigration Act because they have allowed the coach and his assistant to work without a work permit. We haven't decided yet exactly how much yet, but it is likely to be in the region of 20,000 Rand (US$2,750)."
Finally PARREIRA and his assistant who have been hired to lead South Africa to the 2010 World Cup have jus got their work permit.
Samuel MBAJUM
16/02/2007 |
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