Vision 2022 looks blur
THE South African Football Association (Safa) had a big dream for 2022. So big were their dreams that they even gave it a name. Vision 2022 they called it.
This was nearly five years ago and listening to the country’s football governing body explain the vision, you could not help but be excited.
Chiefly, Safa wanted Bafana Bafana to qualify for the Fifa World Cup in Qatar as one of Africa’s top five ranked nations.
Qualification would have followed participation at the continental Nations Cup while all our other national teams would have qualified for their respective African and Word tournaments.
We are in 2022 and one wonders if Safa will be reviewing their plan and giving themselves marks over 100.
When it comes to Bafana, a big zero would be apt given the senior national team’s failure to book their tickets to the Africa Cup of Nations and the Word Cup following a 2021 that promised much but delivered little.
A decision to make yet another change to the squad’s technical head was met with scepticism. But before Belgian Hugo Broos could take over, former Bafana star Helman Mkhalele had the honour of leading the squad in the regional Cosafa Cup. And when that was won, albeit in Mkhalele’s Covid-19 induced absence, excitement abounded.
Broos and Mkhalele lived up to the saying a new broom sweeps clean by changing the squad and bringing in a lot of younger players eager to make a name for themselves.
When the World Cup qualification matches began, there was confidence all round that Bafana could book a ticket to the football showpiece for the first time since 2002.
But when Mkhalele – standing in for Broos who was yet to secure a work permit – and his boys could only draw goalless at Zimbabwe, the road to Qatar looked set to be a steep one.
But then they beat Ghana 1-0 at home in a match they should have won 2-0 had the referee not erroneously denied them a goal, Bafana topped the group.
They won their next three matches – twice against Ethiopia and then against Zimbabwe – and looked set to progress to the final play-off stage for the five African places in Qatar.
Their final match was to be against Ghana in their own backyard.
While top of the group, Bafana had left the door slightly ajar for Ghana to sneak in ahead of them. Such was the goal difference between the two countries that while South Africa needed just a draw to stay top, any Ghana victory would be enough for the west Africans to claim number one spot via goal difference.
The Black Stars duly beat Bafana 1-0 via a penalty and Safa’s claims later on that the match was manipulated came across as nothing more than the loser looking for excuses. It was not surprising that Fifa decided Safa had no case after they had sent a letter of complaint.
It left us still looking for our first qualification for the Word Cup since 2002 and thus a fourth participation at the spectacle remained but just a dream.
Bad as the failure of Vision 2022 to materialise was, Safa would have been pleased with the injection of new blood into the squad which played some good and exciting football. That they finished joint top in the qualifiers and only lost out on goal difference tells the story of a squad with great potential.
The year 2021 was a bitter-sweet one for Bafana Bafana A pity they won’t have a lot of football to play in 2022, what with this being Afcon and World Cup year.