Notoane: South Africa U23 coach's future uncertain, blames part-time role for disappointing Olympics

South Africa under-23 head coach David Notoane has admitted his future with the South African Football Association is uncertain, while also blaming the fact that he was busy with his coaching job at Mamelodi Sundowns' reserve team.

This comes after the team's disappointing 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games campaign as they lost all of their Group A matches.

Notoane confirmed that his contract with Safa expired at the end of the team's Olympic campaign. 

“My engagement with Safa is per camp and at the end of every camp it is pretty much done‚ so they can call someone else for the next camp. My contract ended after the Olympics and at the moment my future is uncertain‚” Notoane told Sowetan. 

Safa chief executive Tebogo Motlanthe explained that Notoane’s future will be decided after his technical report from the Olympics is interrogated by the Technical Committee. 

“We don’t employ coaches on a permanent basis‚ so what is going to happen is that he must submit a report and the Technical Committee will make a call," Motlanthe told the same publication.

"I am still going to schedule a meeting with him‚ but we will get a report for the Technical Committee and a decision will be taken on the way forward.”

Notoane revealed that his mandate was to guide South Africa to the Olympics which he did with the team finishing third at the 2019 Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.

“I have done what I was brought in to do‚ which was to qualify the team and take it to Tokyo. I agree that we didn’t perform the way we wanted to in Tokyo," he continued. 

"So going forward‚ one has to review the process and the conditions of engagements‚ which are not conducive to doing justice to the expectations of the country.

“Naturally as coaches, we are judged by results and the results don’t warrant me to continue‚ but that is a decision for Safa to take. That decision rests with Technical Committee‚ but the investment in terms of experience is there," he said. 

"I will submit the technical report to the Technical Committee and hear from them‚ and I don’t know if I will be required for the next camp.”

Notoane, who is a retired striker, made it clear that some things will have to change at Safa if he is to continue coaching South Africa's Olympic team.

“Things have to radically change for me to continue because I don’t want to continue serving as the national under-23 coach while at the same time working at Sundowns because it is demanding," he added. 

“Also it doesn’t do justice to the national cause and for me to meet the expectations because the times that you have available to yourself to monitor players and be hands on is not there.

“If you ask me whether I want to continue or not‚ I will continue if the conditions are different. David Notoane is the national under-23 coach going to the Olympics and he is working part-time‚ and we say we are a country that is serious about identifying and developing talent," he explained.

“It can’t be. When I came in my understanding with [former Safa CEO] Russell Paul was that let us qualify for the Olympics and after qualifying, we can then look at the long-term commitment‚ which never came. 

“The fact of the matter is that no commitment for a long-term arrangement means maybe there is a lack of confidence in me being part of the Safa structures going forward.”