EDITORIAL | Unless Safa and PSL fix their dysfunction, the danger remains Bafana will slip back into mediocrity

As the dust from the celebrations settles, a sober assessment of the state of South African football and challenges that persist is necessary.

Bafana Bafana deserve every bit of praise and the South African public their rare taste of satisfaction, that the long-ailing team performed such a wonderful underdog act to end a 24-year wait for a semifinal place and earn the bronze medal at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Hugo Broos has done a superb job in his two years and eight months as head coach, turning the team around.

After the Afcon win in 1996, runners-up place in 1998 and third place in 2000, plus World Cup qualifications in 1998 and 2022, the decline in Bafana and men’s South African football was dramatic and alarming.

There were three Afcon group stage exits from 2004 to 2008 and failures to qualify in 2010 and 2012. There were some signs of improvement in the 2010s with quarterfinal placings — the first since 2002 — in 2013 and 2019 — but still failures to qualify in 2017 and 2021.

During this period World Cup qualifications, other than as hosts, stopped. By hosting in 2010 there was an opportunity to capitalise on the huge support that grew for Bafana as the World Cup neared, but they were a disappointment with a first-round exit.

So to see signs of life again in Bafana, perhaps for the first time, genuinely, since the early 2000s was a hugely positive development that addressed an area that was sorely lacking in South Africa society.

Broos and his team have something good going. Improvement in coaching standards at the Premier Soccer League’s (PSL) clubs and some academies, and sometimes the standard and fortunes of the South Africa Football Association’s junior sides is starting to have an effect on the talent base.

Neither Safa and nor the PSL ... have been able to find a solution to the imbalance that top-flight professional is well-sponsored and wealthy, but grassroots amateur football, which produces the players, is poor.

Patrice Motsepe’s financing of the revolution overseen by coaches Pitso Mosimane and now Rulani Mokwena, that made Mamelodi Sundowns a continental force, is lifting South African football. The academies of SuperSport United, Stellenbosch FC, Cape Town Spurs and Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have had varying degrees of success when it comes to producing talent.

Bafana have a real chance of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup after Nigeria’s disastrous start in the group stage. But the Super Eagles will always be a threat to bounce back, too.

For the near future, there are some signs of the sun peeking out after the storm has dissipated.

But for genuine, long-term consistency in excellence to be achieved from South African men’s football, to ultimately be competitive with the best, the structural deficiencies that crippled the sport for two decades — which have not magically disappeared amid Broos’s Afcon magic act — still need to be addressed.

Safa still does not have a centralised, clear development strategy. A scattergun approach of coaching coaches and other initiatives only works to some extent. Budgetary challenges see the junior teams without permanent coaches and at various times overly inactive. Most importantly Safa has never resurrected schools football to the extent it needs to be.

Safa — without seeing the irony, as it is the custodian of development — has been pointing a finger at PSL clubs, saying too many do not have proper academies. And it is not wrong. The PSL has not done enough in terms of compliance to force all its clubs to have effective development programmes.

Neither Safa nor the PSL — regularly in disagreement, which is one of the biggest problem areas in South African football — has been able to find a solution to the imbalance that top-flight professional is well-sponsored and wealthy, but grassroots amateur football, which produces the players, is poor.

Safa president Danny Jordaan and PSL chair Irvin Khoza’s almost three-decade personality feud has been part of the crippling process.

So long as such factors cripple football, Bafana will not perform to their true potential. A Nations Cup with a good coach, players fighting for the jersey and winning games as underdogs was so heartening to see. It is something to build on, and a sign that some things are being done right.

But being underdogs on paper and asked to win consistently is not sustainable. It is great for now, and we should all enjoy it. For the longer term, to genuinely ensure South African football climbs out of the hole the administrators steered it into, will take a more.