Fifa have given South Africa a really raw deal

Iwant to express my disappointment over Fifa’s decision to order a replay of the World Cup qualifying match between Bafana Bafana and Senegal, particularly when we know we were not involved in influencing the referee’s decision.

It is unfair to put our country in such a position. Yes, we should have beaten Cape Verde, but it is still unfair to be penalised for the referee’s decisions. That is not fair play at all. The referee was penalised for his wrongdoing, and that is fair.

Moving forward for the national team at this difficult moment, we need the intervention of sports psychology. This is not the first time our nation has not been doing well in failing to get results against smaller teams. It is a matter of getting sports psychologists who will go deeper to find the root cause that may be affecting the confidence of our players.

Moving on to the results over the weekend, I feel it is a very good start for Benni McCarthy to reach a cup final after only a few months as a coach in the top flight. Going into the MTN8 final against SuperSport United, Benni finds himself in a relaxed position because he knows he has nothing to lose. To him, it is still more of a learning curve – he doesn’t have much pressure. It gives him an advantage in going to the final because he does not find himself in a mustwin situation.

He will be able to prepare his team under comfortable conditions. In hindsight, I don’t think even he would have imagined himself in a cup final after his first few months. He can draw a lot of confidence from beating one of the country’s top coaches in Gavin Hunt three times in a row.

Benni will, however, go up against another top coach in Eric Tinkler – and wherever he goes he makes a lasting impact. It is not going to be easy for Benni, more especially than for Tinkler. There will be that element of going up against his old employer, a City team he guided to their first trophy last season when he defeated his new team SuperSport United. At the same time, Benni will want to make sure he wins his very first cup final and rewrites history.

Even the players at City will be motivated by the fact they are playing against their former coach and will obviously want to prove a point.

I would also like to credit Benni and his technical team for making sure they got the results without Lebogang Manyama. We saw how his situation was handled leading up to his transfer to Turkish side Konyaspor. Yes, they haven’t been playing that kind of fluid football we saw when Manyama was leading them up front, but the fact is they have been getting the results.

Benni kept the style and culture of the team while slowly introducing his own philosophy, and those are the signs of a good coach.

I also want to wish Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport the best of luck this weekend in their respective endeavours in the Caf Champions League and Confederation Cup respectively.

The opposition can only get tougher at this stage. But I believe they have what it takes to go through to the semifinals. A key thing is that both these teams’ success will also determine the progress and sustainability of our national teams.

These players face tough teams from around the continent and that is where they will get valuable experience as clubs and as assets of national football.