Lights out for Parreira at work

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s new football coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, hired to shape the national team into world beaters when the country hosts the World Cup in 2010, faced a bad first day at work due to power cuts, an official said yesterday.

The Brazilian coach, hired on a 1.8-million-rand monthly salary, could not work out of the South African Football Association (SAFA) office near the sprawling Soweto township due to power outages. “It’s an old office at the Soccer City Stadium that we have been using.There are renovation works going on there and I guess it affected electricity supply,” SAFA chief executive Raymond Hack told AFP.”I had to call him to stay at home,” he said, but underlined that as far as he was concerned, Parreira had “started with his work.””He is not confined to coming to the office every morning…he is not an administrator who has to sit behind the computer from nine to five, but a national soccer team coach.”Hack and his staff are expected to move into the newly built 86-million-rand SAFA House on Thursday.It is located near the Soccer City stadium which will host the opening and the final of the World Cup in 2010.The building will also be the headquarters of Fifa delegates and the local organising committee during the 2010 World Cup.Parreira, who signed a four-year deal with SAFA, made his much-awaited arrival in Johannesburg on Friday.* Meanwhile, veteran Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids has completed his move from Tottenham to his first club Ajax, the London club confirmed yesterday.Davids, 33, has signed an 18-month contract which is likely to see him end his career at the club he played for between 1991 and 1996, helping them to win the 1992 Uefa Cup and the Champions League in 1995.He subsequently wore the colours of AC Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Internazionale before being lured to London by fellow Dutchman Martin Jol, the Spurs boss, in 2005.Nampa-AFP”It’s an old office at the Soccer City Stadium that we have been using.There are renovation works going on there and I guess it affected electricity supply,” SAFA chief executive Raymond Hack told AFP.”I had to call him to stay at home,” he said, but underlined that as far as he was concerned, Parreira had “started with his work.””He is not confined to coming to the office every morning…he is not an administrator who has to sit behind the computer from nine to five, but a national soccer team coach.”Hack and his staff are expected to move into the newly built 86-million-rand SAFA House on Thursday.It is located near the Soccer City stadium which will host the opening and the final of the World Cup in 2010.The building will also be the headquarters of Fifa delegates and the local organising committee during the 2010 World Cup.Parreira, who signed a four-year deal with SAFA, made his much-awaited arrival in Johannesburg on Friday.* Meanwhile, veteran Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids has completed his move from Tottenham to his first club Ajax, the London club confirmed yesterday.Davids, 33, has signed an 18-month contract which is likely to see him end his career at the club he played for between 1991 and 1996, helping them to win the 1992 Uefa Cup and the Champions League in 1995.He subsequently wore the colours of AC Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Internazionale before being lured to London by fellow Dutchman Martin Jol, the Spurs boss, in 2005.Nampa-AFP