Official: Carlos Alberto Parreira Taking South Africa To 2010 World Cup

Brazilian World Cup winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has been named as the new South Africa coach. He replaces countryman Joel Santana, who quit the post on Monday after a spate of poor results.

The president of the South African FA (SAFA), Kirsten Nematandani, officially announced that Parreira would rejoin Bafana at a press conference following a lengthy SAFA National Executive meeting held at the OR Tambo Airport.

Nematandani said that Parreira, who won the World Cup with Brazil in the United States in 1994, was the only candidate.

"The reason for opting for Parreira so quickly is that we have a massive time constraint with the World Cup just around the corner," Nematandani told the press.

"I will be honest and say that we knew other South African-born coaches were keen to be appointed. But we simply did not have the time to short-list candidates.

"We decided after a lengthy debate that Parreira was the right person to take us to the 2010 World Cup finals."

Parreira, however, will not be earning the massive R1.8 million-per-month wage he enjoyed in his previous stint at the helm, nor even the R1.4m Santana earned each month.

"We cannot disclose Parreira's salary but it will be a lot less than what he earned when he was in charge the last time," Nematandani said.

And the SAFA president promised that after the 2010 World Cup they will appoint a South African coach to lead Bafana.

"It is only right that we appoint one of our own to lead Bafana after the World Cup to take us forward," Nematandani said.

"It is time we start grooming our own coaches for Bafana. We would have preferred a local coach now, but with time against us and the fact that Parreira had started this job in February 2007 and had to leave us last April due to his wife's ill health, it was only right we call him back to finish the job he started."

Parreira is the 17th appointment as Bafana head coach in 17 years.

Local coaches will have been disappointed with the reappointment of the Brazilian as they felt that they should have been given the chance to take the national team to their home World Cup.