Bafana Bafana coach, Hugo Broos says the country has to work on producing quality players who ply their trade in big leagues for the senior national football team’s fortunes to improve. The Belgian mentor has called on all football stakeholders including the Premier Soccer League (PSL) coaches and his employer, the South African Football Association (SAFA) to work together to find a solution.
He says the chopping and changing of coaches hasn’t helped in the last two decades and until the real problem is solved, there won’t be any progress. Among the problems he cited for Bafana Bafana’s lack of success, is not having players of a quality to compete internationally, and having junior teams without full-time coaches.
Broos has laid bare challenges faced by anyone trying to achieve success with the senior national team just a week after it lost to Morocco. That the country does not produce players of a quality to compete with big football nations on the continent let alone in the world, is an open secret. Broos says that with Percy Tau, arguably the country’s best football player, struggling to find his feet in Egypt, Bafana can’t be expected to be world beaters.
“We don’t talk about Manchester United and all those other big teams we talk about Ahl Ahly, a big team in Africa, and our best player can’t succeed there so then we have a problem,” says Broos.
But it’s curious that the Belgian opened up about what needs to happen just a week before SAFA’s elections are held. He says he can’t solve the problems alone and his attempts to meet with PSL coaches have been unsuccessful.
“I am not God, I don’t know everything please sit together be positive and face the problem and don’t cover the problems and say we should…You see what happened in the last twenty years, the world cup was a present and there were few quarterfinals,” Broos explains.
Broos says with the hunger shown by his players, he’s confident Bafana will get at least the four points from their two matches against Liberia to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Meanwhile, the draw for the 2022 COSAFA Cup tournament was conducted in Durban on Tuesday. Defending champions, South Africa have been drawn in Group A alongside Zambia, Madagascar and West African guest nation, Senegal. The tournament will be played from the 5th to the 17th of July in Durban.
