Cooperation will be the key

SOUTH African football has an opportunity of turning genuine‚ positive signs of a revival in 2016 into a genuine turnaround in 2017.

To do so will require a continuation of the promising signs of far greater cooperation between the South African Football Association and the Premier Soccer League seen in 2016 than in many a year.

This against the backdrop of a lack of continuation in the coaching staff of the senior men’s and women’s national teams‚ and perhaps also the junior teams.

But also on the back of probably the most encouraging result by any South African team in international competition since the early 2000s – Mamelodi Sundowns being crowned 2016 champions of Africa‚ and their consequent first representation by a southern African team at the Fifa Club World Cup.

Given that 2016 culminated with the sacking of yet another Bafana Bafana coach – the end with a whimper of another tenure that had begun with such hope‚ given Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba’s initial brave youth policy and a consequent energetic qualification for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations – 2016 was far from bad for SA football.

On the contrary‚ Sundowns’ Caf Champions League victory – to some extent cancelling out the disappointment and setback of Bafana’s failure to reach Afcon 2017 – has buoyed SA football to arguably the greatest extent since the heyday years that followed international readmission in the 1990s and early 2000s.

It is with a hint of sheepish nostalgia that followers of the game in SA will remember how the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations triumph buoyed by Madiba Magic and postdemocratic fervour on home soil was viewed as the start of things to come in international football.

And how the slow decline of Bafana in the Afcon in subsequent editions – finishing runners-up‚ then third‚ then fourth‚ then quarterfinalists‚ then a side who exited in the first round‚ to no qualification at all becoming something of a hard reality – was met with such dismay.

But just over a decade of underachievement by Bafana and by the country’s club teams in continental competition has given the country – like those first few four-goal thrashings by Zimbabwe‚ Nigeria and Mexico did just after readmission – a more realistic view of our place in global football.

For the first time in a long time at the start of 2017‚ there is a sense that SA football has at its possession not just the required will‚ the skill and expertise gained from the hosting of a World Cup‚ the facilities‚ and perhaps even‚ finally‚ a genuine emerging generation of talent‚ to restore its international fortunes.

Mashaba’s youth policy will leave the incoming coach with a group of emerging players – Rivaldo Coetzee‚ Abbubaker Mobara‚ Keagan Dolly‚ Sibusiso Vilakazi‚ Percy Tau‚ Phakamani Mahlambi – capable of achieving something if well led.

And Mashaba’s biggest gift to the new coach will be that Bafana sit in a promising position in the World Cup qualifiers.

South Africa are in second place on goal difference in Group D‚ level with leaders Burkina Faso on four points following a draw against Burkina and 2-1 home win against group favourites Senegal.

Their next two back-to-back matches against Cape Verde Islands in late August away and early September at home are crucial.

Win both against a side who have lost both their matches so far‚ then SA could potentially even wrap up a World Cup qualification at home against Burkina Faso in October‚ crucially before their final game against Senegal away‚ which Bafana do not want to face needing a result from. That would be something. Not competing at Afcon 2017 is a setback. The experience gained at that competition on the back of participation at Equatorial Guinea 2015 would have been invaluable.

One has the sense that Safa needs to continue to redouble its efforts in continuing to centralise and coordinate development in 2017.

But the various coaching programmes – individual academies‚ Safa’s improved-again School of Excellence‚ some of the club’s (SuperSport‚ Sundowns‚ Wits‚ Ajax) fine youth structures – have been producing a better-coached player coming through to the national team.

And the successes shown by the junior national teams in the past two years promise more of the same.

Much hinges on appointing the right Bafana coach. Do that‚ and everything else almost falls into place.

Overall 2017 – by the superb action seen in the PSL in the first half of 2016-17‚ Sundowns‚ and even an improving Bafana – does appear to offer much hope and promise to the SA football fan. — TMG Digital