Stuart Baxter has refuted suggestions that the likelihood of South Africa hosting next year's Africa Cup of Nations would secure his job as Bafana Bafana coach.
Read: CAF Want Plug Play, Bafana To Benefit?
The former Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United mentor is well aware of the fact that should his employers – the South African Football Association – win the bid to stage the Afcon after Cameroon were stripped of the hosting rights last Friday, the national team would gain automatic entry into the competition.
This is despite the fact that Bafana still have one more game to play in their Group E qualifiers when they face Libya away in March.
Baxter's men only need a point to join Nigeria as the two teams from their group to book their place at the Afcon in June next year.
"It's a blessing and curse," the coach said on Wednesday.
"As a professional coach, the experience of a game with the knife at our throat in Libya for this group of players would be massive. So there's a part of me that wants to play the game anyway. An Afcon on home soil for this group of players would be massive. I hope we can get both. I have had that conversation this morning and I keep thinking I will try and plan for this game. We've got to win it."
Regardless of whether Bafana qualify as hosts or not, they will still have to travel to Tunisia, the neutral venue for Libya's home matches due to civil war in their own country, as the North Africans could still qualify if they beat SA.
