Parreira returns to coach South Africa for World Cup (Roundup)

Oct 23, 2009, 18:12 GMT

Johannesburg - Eighteen months after he quit, Brazilian Carlos Parreira returned as coach to South Africa's national football team Friday, replacing his compatriot Joel Santana, who was dismissed this week.

The South African Football Association confirmed that Parreira, 66, had been picked to try to turn around the lacklustre World Cup host side in the eight short months left to go before kick-off in the tournament.

SAFA's national executive committee was meeting behind closed doors in Johannesburg and had yet to make the official announcement.

The Brazilian, who led his country to the 1994 World Cup title, was no surprise choice, even though some South African football commentators had been rooting for a local coach for Bafana Bafana.

South African media had been reporting for weeks that Parreira, who spent 16 months with Bafana on his first contract, was poised for a comeback - even before Santana agreed to leave on Monday, following a string of defeats.

Santana's exit followed Bafana's defeat in eight of its nine last games to mostly mediocre teams. During his 16-month tenure the 1996 African Cup of Nations champions slipped from number 76 worldwide to 85th.

Parreira had resigned in April last year, saying he wanted to return home for family reasons. It was Parreira who recommended Santana, a former coach to Brazilian top club Flamengos, to replace him.

Bafana's dismal performances over the past few years had caused dismay in South Africa as it prepares to stage the World Cup for the first time in Africa.

In a television interview in Brazil earlier this week Parreira said restoring the players' confidence after a run of defeats would be his first priority.

South Africa's last noteworthy performances date to the eight-nation Confederations Cup in South Africa in June.

South Africa made it to the semi-final, losing to tournament winners Brazil only by a late goal. But the team failed to put a score on the board in most of the games.

'The greatest difficulty for South African football is the lack of goalscorers,' Parreira said in the Brazilian television interview. 'And you cannot find a goalscorer in a few months,' he added.

While South Africans are looking to Parreira for a breakthrough, he has not been covered in glory of late.

He returns to South Africa after being fired by Rio de Janeiro-based Fluminense in July after five successive defeats. He was Brazil's coach during the last World Cup in Germany but retired afterwards, when the team crashed out in the quarter-finals