Football in SA is like Eskom
On Bafana’s big win over Sierra Leone
To be honest with you, when I look at the Bafana Bafana squad that was called for the game, I think in order for us to move forward, we need to build a team that will be together for three to four years. If you introduce new players, you must only bring in two or four players the most. Changing the whole team all the time is going to be problematic in a long run. When you look at the team that played against Sierra Leone, tell me which players are playing for the national team on a regular basis? We cannot have a situation where we keep changing players all the time. Another problem is that there is no competition amongst players and, on top of that, you have an arrogant coach in Hugo Broos. Right now, the coach is eating a humble pie because of Themba Zwane’s performance. Zwane showed him with his performance that he is a national asset. There are players who were not supposed be there, but as a former national team player myself, I’m not going to single out those players. The reason why I’m saying the coach is arrogant is because he once made comments in the media – even though we don’t know how accurate those comments are – that he didn’t like Zwane’s style of play. He said that Zwane is old and now he is coming with an excuse that he couldn’t find anyone who plays like Zwane. Cristiano Ronaldo is 37 years old and still playing. People that are coming from Europe are very arrogant. When they come here, they think that they are coming here to teach us and we are just being introduced to football. The style that they are playing in Europe, we were playing it long before, but coaches like Terry Paine told us back then that it was useless football. In Europe, now they are playing that very same style of football but better than us, and these coaches want to re-introduce it to our football again. If I was running SAFA, the only coaches that I would bring is development coaches. I remember, we once lost to Zambia 3-0 when we were coached by Carlos Alberto Parreira. That was like a Ferrari losing a race to a Toyota Tazz – it didn’t make sense to me. Going back to the game, yes, we won 4-0 this past weekend, but Sierra Leone played like a National First Division or ABC Motsepe (League) team – I didn’t recognise any of their players. The only recent game that Bafana played well was against Morocco – we played well in that game, even though we lost. There is this notion in South Africa that players who are older than 30 years should be left out and that is nonsense. We (need to) choose players on merit and not age.
‘Only fools cannot change their minds’
The coach selected Zwane and said only a fool cannot change his mind – it’s unfortunate that the very same saying comes at a price. Right now, we are not going to the FIFA World Cup. What are we playing for? Did we qualify for Afcon and the World Cup? The answer is no. If you are saying only a fool cannot change his mind, then why do you change your mind when there is nothing to play for? SAFA is not owned by individuals. When people want certain players in the national team, the coach says, “You know what, I’m Hugo Broos, I come from Belgium and I will show you who I am.” Right now, we did not qualify for the World Cup and only now he says only a fool doesn’t change his mind. We have Lebogang Mothiba who plays in France and is the only player that plays in the top league overseas, but he doesn’t get a call-up. We cannot have a situation where people cannot account. Hugo Broos behaves like has shares at SAFA. I once read a story that national team coaches should not be permanent, and I agree with that. I mean, why are we paying senior national team coaches when our intentions are to develop quality players? A senior national team coach position must not be permanent, the only people who must be permanent are junior coaches. We need (to give) fulltime attention to youth structures so that we can develop proper footballers.
On poor attendance
When you have a national team game, you don’t just take it to FNB Stadium, you take it to a venue where people are hungry to watch football. How do you bring a game… on Heritage Day weekend where most people prefer alcohol? A lot of people were watching rugby than football because rugby doesn’t disappoint them. Rugby has better development structures and they have school rugby as well, which is why they consistently produce players. My Primary School in Alexandra produced myself, Brian Baloyi, Patrick Tshisikhawe, Maimane Phiri and Sibusiso Zwane, to mention just a few. I’m talking about just Primary School, and I heard about Steve Lekoelea since he was playing at school in Vaal. These days, you don’t know anyone who will be coming through the school system. We produced many players because everyone was playing football. If you go to Alexandra now, there is only one field left, and they have built RDP houses where people used to play football. There are no facilities. That is why rugby has more fans than football. So, in my opinion, this game against Sierra Leone should have been taken to a place like Venda – that would have attracted a better crowd than FNB Stadium. They should also learn to revive stadiums
next to mines where people are hungry to watch. But unfortunately, football in South Africa is like Eskom, nothing functions properly.
On the new crop of players
I don’t want to comment about new crop of players, but what I can say is that it took some of the players three years sitting on the bench before they could start playing for the national team. Today, players are called up and the next match they are out. Why are they not building a future team? If you want to bring in youngsters, you introduce them one by one, you don’t just change the entire team. Ronwen Williams is the only one who has been with the national team for a long time, but even with him, he has been in and out of the team. In order for us to know if the players we have now can take us forward, I would say let’s get better opponents as well – let us not get excited about the 4-0 result against Sierra Leone. If we get quality opponents and a local coach, we can revive the team. Clive Barker won the 1996 Afcon and took us to the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Jomo Sono took us to the final of the 1998 Afcon. Which European coach has helped us win anything? What was the need for calling a foreign coach for (the) 2010 World Cup?