Kerr one of over 50 applicants for SA job

News: Former Republic of Ireland manager Brian Kerr is one of the names in the reckoning to manage South Africa after Romanian Ted Dumitru's contract ended following a disastrous African Cup of Nations campaign.

Kerr is one of over 50 applicants for the job that was due to come under review after the tournament. The search for a new coach will now start sooner than anticipated due to the Bafana Bafana's early exit, following defeats in their three group games against Tunisia, Guinea and Zambia, in which they failed to score a single goal.

It represented the nadir of 14 years of international football since South Africa's return to the global arena in 1992 after decades of apartheid-enforced isolation.

Speaking to The Irish Times, South African Football Association (Safa) chief executive Raymond Hack said the search for a new coach would begin immediately, but that no applications had been considered yet.

"We now wait for the technical committee's report and start evaluating coaches, and the way forward," he said. "We have a meeting on the 16th and 28th of February and we are hoping to do it in the next six weeks."

Hack said he could not comment on any individual applicant, and added: "They are all the same, we haven't looked at anybody."

Terry Venables is also known to be one of the applicants for the job, but neither he nor Kerr, are considered likely candidates by commentators in South Africa. Ghana coach Ratomir Dujkovic is among one of the people's favourites at the moment, but the Serbian is still expected to lead his team in the World Cup finals in Germany despite his first-round exit from the Cup of Nations. Democratic Republic of Congo coach Claude LeRoy is also thought to be among the front-runners.

Dumitru was the 12th coach that the country had employed since 1992. He took over from Englishman Stuart Baxter, who resigned in November after the country's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals. South Africa's performance in Egypt has set off alarm bells ahead of the country's hosting of the 2010 World Cup finals. And the team's return to Johannesburg yesterday was greeted by vitriolic jeering, something never before experienced by a South African soccer team.

The tournament outcome and regular infighting between players and Safa means that life in the job is a tempestuous one for any manager. That is tempered by the fact that the side would not have to qualify for the World Cup 2010 and would enjoy home advantage.