Parreira will resign Monday, says South African official

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Carlos Alberto Parreira will resign Monday as coach of 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa, according to a senior national football association official.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that World Cup-winning coach Parreira will quit 15 months into a mission to transform the struggling national team because his Brazil-based wife is ill and lonely.

Parreria and South Africa Football Association (SAFA) president Molefi Oliphant are scheduled to address a media conference in Johannesburg Monday after an emergency meeting of the national governing body.

A Johannesburg Sunday Times report quoted an unnamed SAFA insider saying Leila Parreira was battling cancer and not even iconic former president Nelson Mandela could talk the coach out of leaving.

Leila Parreira told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo Friday that the coach would return home next month to assist her recovery from major surgery and be ...