PSL TEAMS SHARE BLAME FOR BANYANA’S FAILURES

SO CLOSE, yet so far! That sums up Banyana Banyana’s successive failure to qualify for the Olympic Games after losing 1-0 on aggregate to Nigeria.

The South African women’s national football team lost 1-0 in the first leg in Abuja last week and followed with a drab 0-0 draw in Tshwane on Tuesday in the return leg.

The Queens of African football failed for the second time under coach Desiree Ellis to qualify for the Olympics. It was the same story for Tokyo four years ago.

Whenever teams lose, coaches always have to take the blame for the failure and rightfully so should Ellis.

Don’t get it wrong, she’s still the right woman for the job, but this failure should make her realise it is time she seriously start working on refreshing her squad.

She should take the blame for the majority of her squad being the same players she inherited from Vera Pauw who she assisted in 2019 when Banyana went to their first World Cup in France.

That same squad dominated African football up until they won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in 2022. They went on to qualify for their second World Cup as they engineered a South African record of being the first side to ever reach the global showpiece’s knock-out stages.

Bravo to all of that, it has been a great run, but the next generation should start taking their place and look forward to the next Wafcon, World Cup and Olympics.

But Ellis should only shoulder part of the blame. Who should take the other part? The Premier Soccer League (PSL).

After five seasons of the professional (or semi-pro) South African Women’s League, big and loved PSL clubs like AmaZulu, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are still resistant to establishing women’s football wings.

Mamelodi Sundowns, TS Galaxy and Royal AM are the only teams with official women’s football teams, while SuperSport United and Sekhukhune United have adopted women’s teams simply to be eligible to compete in the Caf Confederation Cup this season as per Confederation of African Football requirements.

With this attitude, one can almost allow Ellis an excuse of some sort.