For a lot of people Bafana Bafana’s failure to qualify for African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 in Cameroon represented a catastrophic event. The truth however is that this is simply a symptom of a deep seated problem that is far reaching than just about one national team failing to qualify for a major tournament. For those who saw the signs this has been in the making over the last decades. The firing of the coach has far too been an easy default without deling with the fundamental. The game’s leadership has not changed in this country since re-admission I often talk to some of my closest friends about the need for black people to have their own behind-closed-doors conversation about the state of out nation on the things that we can control. Football is one of those. The time has come for us to face some painful truths.
Frstly, we really are not as great a football nation as we have always thought and been lied to that we are. We keep on telling ourselves that we are better than what we really are. We are ranked 71st in the world and 13th in Africa. We always hear this nonsense about having the best league in Africa and one of the top 10 leagues in the world. We are neither. We have won only 1 AFCON title since our re-admission. That one AFCON has an asterisk. We won at home when the best team in Africa and defending champions Nigeria chose not to come and defend their title. For a good measure they went on to win Olympic Gold in Atlanta that same year. We have only won 2 CAF Champions league titles in nearly 30 years of continental attempts.
Secondly, the failure of the Bafana is a failure not just of South African Football Association (SAFA) but the Premier Soccer League (PSL) as well. It is after all the PSL players that make up the vast majority of the senior national team players. Next time you watch the PSL match on TV or live count how many team have a South Africans in the key positions that make the spine of the team i.e. goalkeeper, central defender, central midfielder and centre forward. Then ask yourself this, how many players does the coach have to choose from. I will save you the trouble We have the highest number of foreigners in any league on the continent. At an average 20% of the squads and way more on the field. We also have one of the oldest leagues in squad average age at 28 years. According Transfermkt website last year only Nigeria at 29 in the continent had older rooster. No national team can thrive when its own talent is not getting game time.
Thirdly, SAFA and PSL have dysfunctional relationship. No national football system can survive where the mother body and the member body are at a constant state of war. It’s no accident that all the other national teams are ranked and perform much better than Bafana. The senior team is now the worst of the national teams. At least according to FIFA rankings. So as we look to hang SAFA for the state for the national team, do not leave the PSL out of it they are equally responsible for the mess that is our senior national team. That said, SAFA is the mother body and should have brought its rebellious special member to line a long time ago.
Fourthly, state of development and talent management. There is no doubt that we have the talent because we have consistently produced Under 17 and 20 teams that qualify for major finals but we simply do not take it beyond that. Part of this is because we do not have clearly defined talent pathway.
And at elite levels the older, foreign talent is seems to be preferred to youth as ridiculous as that sounds. Look at the graph below. The result of the graph below shows that we are not produce world class talent. The best players in the world play in the top 5 leagues in the world i.e. Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1. According to Stats Bomb. The top 25 largest sources of talent have 6 African nations i.e. Senegal, Cote d’ Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and Cameroon. South Africa is not even in the top 50 nations that have the most players in the top 5 leagues. South Africa is 67th largest supplier of football talent to the best leagues or 17th in Africa at just 4 players. By comparison Ghana, our World Cup qualifying opponents at 4th in Africa have 24 players in the top 5 leagues. For context Senegal has 38 players in the top 5 leagues. We have not invested in coaching and coaches and have failed our talent.
Finally, commercially the game is in a difficult phase. Re-imaging the game on the field requires that this is also achieved off the field. The game’s commercial fundamentals tell a troubling story. The fans are disenfranchised as seen in declining attendances and television audiences. The corporate seems to be on a wait and see phase. The prevailing mood and state of game does nothing to give anybody confidence in the state of the game.
So what does South African football need right now. For once and for starters, acknowledge that we are not as good as we have often told ourselves we are. The numbers don’t lie. SAFA must take better control of football in its entirety and that includes bringing PSL to toe the line. We must rethink our talent development and that includes coaching development and create a clearer talent pathways. Raise the bar for foreign talent playing in our leagues and the foreigners in our league. Build a fans based football industry and not a made for TV reality show. Find a new leadership to take the game forward. Do I believe the current South Africa football leadership is capable to taking us forward. No!. there I said.
