SA clubs should be proud to be playing Africa’s best

AJAX Cape Town’s stay in it was shorter than their coach Roger de Sa’s surname.

Bidvest Wits decided to treat it like a jumping-castle customised kindergarten fit for their juniors.

Given the vrot domestic season they are enduring, plus their history when it comes to it, the expectation — even from their staunchest supporters — was always an early shower for Kaizer Chiefs.

The it being referred to are the Confederation of African Football competitions. Champions League. Confederation Cup. Take your pick.

The aforementioned teams are out of the running owing to early elimination.

That leaves Mamelodi Sundowns — who are AC Vita away from reaching the Champions League group stages — as the sole representative from South Africa chasing continental glory.

This is a gory picture considering the gallantry recently on display courtesy of Orlando Pirates.

Bucs resembled a raging bull by going the full duration in two African club competitions in three years.

Then Pirates were felled in the final of the Champions League in November 2013 and Confed Cup last November, ensuring that two more slots were available to SA teams.

It is no rocket science that the more our players are exposed to conditions on the continent the more experience they obtain.

But instead of treating such contests with the seriousness they deserve, some see it as an irritating inconvenience.

Gavin Hunt had the gall to play his reserves and reserve his best players for the Absa Premiership where he is chasing the championship.

Wits’s conduct cannot be condoned. But here is the crux of the matter: Does it make sense for South African teams to go to the preliminary rounds of Caf competitions at the same time that the league enters its crucial stage that determines which direction the championship is going?

Does it make sense for the South African league to continue operating on an August-May calender?

When it comes to cost, is the financial input worth the output? Which matters most? Domestic or foreign dominance?

There’s a school of thought that suggests our teams are weak. That argument is defeated by the fact that pockets of brilliance are in evidence: Jomo Cosmos reached the semifinals of the Cup Winners Cup in 1993; Pirates won the Africa Champions League in 1995; Chiefs won the Mandela Cup in 2001, the same year Sundowns reached the Champions League final.

Yes it is costly but equally so is inviting Crystal Palace and Sporting Lisbon to play profitless Cape Town Cup friendlies with Ajax.

Wits can’t complain about the cost, they being a club owned by Brian Joffe, he who owns Bidvest, one of Africa’s largest conglomerates that conducts business on four continents. Money, for Joffe, is never too tight to mention, to paraphrase Simply Red.

For crying out loud, even National First Division campaigners David Thidiela’s Black Leopards had a fairytale Confed Cup run in 2012. Thidiela’s coffers are small change compared to Joffe’s.

All teams should put their shoulders to the wheel in order to advance the gains of the Orlando Pirates pathfinders.

No amount of money can buy you the honour, pride and prestige of going toe to toe with the best on the continent is the mantra of Bucs boss Irvin Khoza.

His fellow chairmen can adopt that progressive thinking, like Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe is. So they can stay longer than De Sa’s surname in Caf competitions.

This is a gory picture considering gallantry recently on display courtesy of Pirates