Queiroz resigns as `a matter of principle` (13.03.2002)
Carlos Queiroz`s squabble with Jomo Sono over who has ultimate control of Bafana Bafana came to a predictable head on Tuesday.
The bickering between the two men, appointed to work together after a disappointing African Nations Cup, reached a level that Queiroz said he could not live with.
He said he would quit rather than allow Sono to share in team selection duties.
South African Football Association President Molefi Oliphant announced the Portuguese trainer had resigned at a press conference on Tuesday.
He also announced that Sono would now be in charge of the team.
Queiroz later said he had not resigned but had rather "stepped aside" in the interests of South African soccer.
"It is a matter of principle and ethics," Queiroz said.
"The issue at stake is who has final control over the selection of players and I am not prepared to share that responsibility. I cannot compromise my professionalism".
Sono, who was South Africa`s caretaker coach when they reached the final of the 1998 African Nations Cup in Burkina Faso, was appointed last month as the technical director of the team.
He was told
to work together with Queiroz in the selection of the team coaching staff.
No compromise
The struggle for control reached a crescendo on Monday night when Queiroz refused to relinquish his powers of selection.
"We mandated Sono and Queiroz to work together in the matters of selecting the team and technical staff," said Oliphant.
"But the coach said the team selection was his sole responsibility and he did not want to compromise on this matter", Oliphant said.
Meetings between Queiroz and Safa failed to resolve the issue.
"I went to a discussion to clarify who is in charge of the team and I have had to explain that is not possible to share these duties."
The Mozambican-born trainer was the eighth man to coach South Africa since their re-entry into international competition almost a decade ago.
After Frenchman Philippe Troussier, who took South Africa to the last World Cup finals in France in 1998, he was only the second foreigner to take charge of Bafana Bafana.
He had already announced he would be leaving the post after his contract expired at the end of the World Cup finals.
