The Siya crew spoke to a top agent in SA to get their expert understanding on what’s going on. For obvious reasons, the agent will remain anonymous.

“I think it is a travesty and it goes a long way to showing that we as a nation are not serious about our football. First and foremost, as a football lover and someone who wants to see best for our football teams, I think that the lion’s share of the blame has to rest on the shoulders of SAFA.

“They have literally failed us as a nation, and it shows within our national teams. There is no way you can go into a tournament of this magnitude and be ill-prepared as we were. The coach had a week and a bit to prepare the squad and that in itself is a problem.

“The fact that we have part-time coaches in our junior national teams speaks to how we are a part-time football nation, who does not take it seriously. We cannot expect to qualify for major events when we don’t take football seriously. The U23 coach, the U20 coach, the U17 coach are all part-time coaches and that is unacceptable if we want to be the footballing nation that we can and should be.

“I believe that SAFA is to blame. I don’t believe that the coach had the necessary time to prepare his team. If you look at the two teams who were in the final, Mozambique and Zambia, they were preparing for a long time prior to this tournament.

“There were certain clubs who didn’t release their players. Who do you put the blame on? Again, SAFA cannot call camps willy-nilly just a week before the tournament. Where is the groundwork that needs to be done to ensure that we have the best players to represent us.

“If you look at a coach like Vela Khumalo, his hand was almost forced to choose players that he works with day in and day out. There were eight players that he coaches at Chiefs in the DDC and he cannot be faulted for the amount of players that he chose from Chiefs, purely because he wasn’t given enough time to go around, find the best players because he is a part-time coach at Chiefs and in the national team and if you make full-time positions part-time decisions you are going to get these kind of results.”