Hugo Broos should take a bow for Bafana Bafana’s excellent 2024. The South African Football Association (Safa), less so. Much less.
In South African sport, it has been a relative period of bliss for the last two years.
One of the highlights has been the beleaguered national football team’s genuine re-emergence as a competitive entity on the continent.
There were almost two decades of suffering for Bafana supporters. The last World Cup South Africa qualified for, other than as hosts, was in 2002, the last Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final in 1998 and last semifinal in 2000.
The country rallied behind Bafana as hosts of the 2010 World Cup, but Safa’s belligerence in ignoring the howls of the public to put in place effective development to ensure a competitive team was the major reason for a first-round exit, however much fight the players put up in the tournament.
Group stage exits in the Nations Cup in 2004 to 2008 were followed by failures to qualify in 2010 and 2012. A quarterfinal placing on home soil in 2013 did little to regenerate excitement, and it was followed by a group stage exit in 2015 and another failure to qualify in 2017.
Bafana have lost three times in 24 games going back two years and five months. It seems safe to finally call all of this a revival. But it’s a fragile one, too.
Again, fingers had to be pointed at Safa. How had it spent the World Cup windfall? Why was there so little improvement?
Finally at the 2019 Nations Cup there was some sign of life. Bafana shocked hosts Egypt in the last 16 to reach the quarterfinals, where they bowed out narrowly to Nigeria. While there were critics of coach Stuart Baxter’s style of play it was their best performance at an away Afcon in 17 years.
Still, by the time Broos was appointed coach in 2021, soon after another failure to qualify for that year’s Afcon, many were willing to give up on the national team. Too many hopes were dashed for almost two decades, too many false dawns promised something but delivered no joy.
So when Broos ran Ghana close in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, bravely selecting young players, it was hard for many supporters to get their hopes up that this might be a sign of a turnaround.
This year has been different. The signs had been there that it might be. Bafana had lost once in 14 matches going into the Nations Cup finals in Ivory Coast in January and February, going back to their 2-1 qualifying loss against Morocco in Rabat in June 2022.
They had shocked Morocco 2-1 — in the Atlas Lions’ first match since being Africa’s first World Cup semi-finalists in Qatar — in the return match, admittedly meaningless for both teams in terms of progression, in June last year.
Many still wrote such a result off a yet another of Bafana’s flash-in-the-pan upsets — surely they were still mostly no-hopers at the Afcon?
Bafana’s bronze medal in Ivory Coast, reaching their first semifinal in 24 years, bouncing back from an opening group defeat against Mali with stirring, fighting wins, including another remarkable shock of Morocco in the last 16, before coming within a lost penalty shoot-out against Nigeria of reaching the final, was a surprise to most.
It has been followed by more big results. South Africa have not lost since the Afcon, their football is more confident and flowing, with plenty of fight for the jersey too, in 10 more unbeaten matches, with plenty more young talent being introduced.
These included a 1-1 draw in Nigeria that leaves South Africa in a healthy position in their attempt to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, and a stunning 5-0 thrashing of Congo in Gqeberha that went a long way towards clinching their return to the next Afcon in Morocco.
Bafana have lost three times in 24 games going back two years and five months. It seems safe to finally call all of this a revival. But it’s a fragile one, too.
What happens when Broos, who is 72, leaves? The coach arrived just as there was some mindset changes in Premier Soccer League clubs on fielding young players, and an improvement in the development structures of many, resulting in some young talent finally emerging. Safa’s coaching programmes of the last decade have also had some effect, even if they have not come close to reaching their targets.
The association, though, remains problematic. The national executive committee is too large, expensive and unwieldy, and critics have said it is beholden to president Danny Jordaan, who, in his third term since first elected 2013, has not kept most of his promises to turn around the organisation.
Worse, Jordaan is facing fraud charges after his arrest by the Hawks, for which he was back in court on Thursday.
Critics have alleged what little development Safa was providing was largely cut during Covid-19-motivated restructuring and not restored in the ensuing years by the cash-strapped association.
Safa published a financial report in July for 2022-23 showing a shortfall of R107m. Recent reporting is Safa has not paid match bonuses to Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana players since September, allegedly owing them R6m. These are players who are the reigning Women’s Africa Cup of Nations champions and men’s bronze medallists.
The association continues to drop the ball and if it does not reform, the gains made in men’s and women’s football can be lost, as they were due to maladministration after the heyday of Bafana’s 1996 Afcon victory and 1998 and 2002 World Cup qualifications.
But for now, long-suffering football supporters can savour the extremely long-awaited revival Bafana has shown and, importantly, that new pride in the jersey that makes this generation fight for the results.
It is long overdue and beyond welcome.
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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