Baxter to discipline badly behaved Bafana players
Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has promised to read the riot act to players who behaved irresponsibly in the wake of the side’s 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifying defeat to Cape Verde in Durban on September 5.
Stuart Baxter, coach of South Africa (Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix)
Phakaaathi understands that certain Bafana players went to a nightclub after the 2-1 defeat in Durban and then took the party back to the team hotel.
READ: Bafana stars clash after Cape Verde loss
Baxter, however, strongly denied that midfielder Bongani Zungu was the ringleader of any party.
“I am pretty sure that over the last 50 years people have looked with admiration at boys taking a drink or “boys being boys”, said Baxter.
“But when we are professional athletes representing our country we don’t do that. It will be dealt with in house … what does not help are people making up stories that are … hugely inflated and missing the mark completely.
“I am going to protect one player because it is totally inaccurate to name Zungu as a ringleader in anything that happened. On a scale of 0-10, Bongani’s involvement was maybe a 2 or 3. There were others that were pretty much more. I will take care of that. Bongani I have already taken care of. His club (Amiens SC) were contemplating massive fines. I am hugely unhappy reading a player has been a ringleader when he has not.
“All of the things we are looking at happened after the game (in Durban),” added Baxter.
“I want to make sure the players don’t see the coach hanging them out to dry but certainly they will know my displeasure … whatever I say here you can multiply by ten what I will be saying to them between four eyes. The public have every right to demand more than that sort of behaviour.
“Very quickly, when everybody gets to camp (Bafana go into camp on October 1 for their next World Cup qualifier at home to Burkina Faso) anyone involved will very clearly know my thoughts … I have a responsibility to not only make sure we have a coherent national side but also that we reflect certain values to young South Africans.”
