Le Roi Bresilien Assumes Throne

The Monsignors of South African soccer have spoken, and the nation is in awe. Of their rank, but rank, excesses, that is. Carlos Parreira has been confirmed as the new national coach, and is to earn a breathtaking $150,000 per month, at current exchange rates, for the next four years. Tax free. The many previous Rois of Bafana Bafana are now well and truly dead (it was thirteen in ten years at last count, wasn’t it?) – long live the Roi!

The Monsignors’ move points either to a potent combo of lack of shame and surfeit of hubris, or to wide-eyed no-options-left-without-massive-loss-of-face panic at having been danced so deftly by the Brazilian into this outrageous deal. Regardless, it is Your humble Correspondent’s opinion that it will all end in tears, in about 2008. The Monsignors like deposing their Rois too much – they like it almost as much as they like their morning chocolate – for Parreira to last to the World Cup. The infighting, carpet yanking and backstabbing in SAFA will get to him eventually, and he’ll leave SA a 65-year old millionaire.

• Nurse incredulity here: Business Day | IOL | iAfrica