Wake up call for Bafana

WHEN former Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula infamously called Bafana Bafana players “a bunch of losers” in 2014 he was heavily criticised for his strong words.

That was after Bafana failed to progress to the knockout stages of the African Nations Championship.

At the time he said he felt sorry for the fans who had paid their money to watch “a bunch of useless individuals . . . Let them [Bafana] be told that their performance was not even lacklustre – it was useless.”

Over the past 10 days Mbalula’s words have echoed in the ears of SA soccer lovers as the national team was convincingly beaten 2-1 in backto-back Fifa world cup qualifiers by minnows Cape Verde – last Friday and again on Tuesday.

That leaves Bafana’s chance of making it to the World Cup in Russia next year in tatters. To get there they will have to win their two remaining games against Burkina Faso and Senegal.

To add salt to the wound, the world governing body, Fifa, has ordered that Bafana’s 2-1 win over Senegal last year be replayed in November. This follows the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to uphold the lifetime ban of the match referee, Joseph Lamptey, for “match manipulation” for awarding Bafana a dubious penalty.

The SA Football Association (Safa) said this week it would appeal the decision as Safa had committed no wrong in the matter.

But if the game is replayed, the chances are that Bafana will not emerge victorious again. Annulling that win will leave SA with one point and root it to the bottom of the group.

Because of the losses to Cape Verde, fans are asking: What should be done to turn Bafana Bafana’s fortunes around? Did Safa make the right decision in firing Shakes Mashaba after the game against Senegal last year? Is Stuart Baxter the right man for the job?

Evidently we’re not as good as we’d like to think we are at soccer. But are the current players willing to die on the field of play for the nation? Do they even understand what it means to play for the national team?

You’re guaranteed to get different answers to all these questions. But while we seek solutions we must accept that SA soccer fans will, for a consecutive world cup, have to adopt another African team to back in Russia next year.

Maybe we expected a bit too much from a team that last qualified for the world cup in Japan 2002. The same applies to Afcon. The last time Bafana took part in continental and world showcases it was because we were the hosting nation – in 2013 and 2010.

So it’s back to the drawing board for SA. If we are to qualify for the 2022 world cup in Qatar, the rebuilding phase must start now.