Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has often taken potshots at the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for the standard of the top-flight DStv Premiership being too low. Now for the first time, after winning bronze with Bafana Bafana at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) this month, the Belgian has admitted his bosses at the South African Football Association (Safa) are part of the problem.
Broos, who pulled off a magic act guiding Bafana to third place and their first Afcon semifinal in 24 years in Ivory Coast, had a furrow across his brow facing questions on the state of South African football in a roundtable with soccer writers. At the back of his mind he seemed to be contemplating what future it can have once he leaves. He is 71 — he will leave, most likely after the 2026 World Cup. It suggested he’s developed a genuine affinity for the sport in South Africa and cares for its direction.
Bafana were the underdogs on paper in every match except their 4-0 group stage thrashing of Namibia at the Nations Cup. That makes Broos’ forging and steering of the side to bronze remarkable. It was built on an excellent, realistic counterattacking gameplan and fighting, passionate defensive displays. There were some crazy missed chances by the opposition.
Winning that way is not sustainable, especially considering coaches such as Broos — accompanied by the right set of circumstances and players, and it all gelling — are so hard to come by.
So Safa might want to take a victory lap for the Afcon achievement. They should not. Broos, bolstered by the security of the best Nations Cup campaign in more than two decades, had the bravery to suggest that about his bosses, and what needs doing, and the reality of what is likely to be done.
It was put to the coach that many South Africans — probably most — agree the Premiership standard is too low and much of the reason is not enough clubs have acceptable youth systems and structures; but Safa, as custodians of development, must also accept responsibility.
“OK, because I am always talking about the PSL, but I think Safa has a role to play too,” the coach said.
“Starting with the youth — starting a development programme for the youth. And I know this is a big country and it’s not so easy, but you can make a plan and see how it goes and during the project make corrections. It has to be possible.
“I see how a youth team — take for example the U-17s — play their Afcon, and then they don’t qualify, then there are six, seven months where they have nothing on the programme. And then suddenly there is a qualifier for the World Cup. In the seven, eight months in between nothing else happened.
“I didn’t understand when the coach came, I think for the U-23s, and I asked if he had his team and he said, ’I have to look for it,’ It was eight months from the last time he saw his team. This is not possible.
“There is no follow-up. It means you play today with U-17s and one year later there are maybe 15 players who are 18, so you have to look for another team.
“This is something you have to plan. OK, next year we have the qualifiers for [an age group] Afcon, start looking for [players] and make camps. So Safa has a role to play — a big role. But again, I come to the PSL — then teams have to be ready to release their players.
“In the last Cosafa Cup we wanted to start with an U-23 team so they could gain experience and we couldn’t make a team. Every club said, ‘We won’t release players because we are in preseason.’ We started training with 12 players.
“I’m also not complaining, because from when I came here, it’s a big difference. Clubs are now putting young players in, and I’m very happy about that.”
There are multilayered issues that have crippled South African football, resulting in Bafana’s two decades of underachievement. What happened in Ivory Coast was something to build on, a rare display of fighting for the jersey to win back public faith that was on the verge of being, or had been, abandoned. Broos deserves credit for that because the negativity that has surrounded Bafana is something few coaches have managed to reverse.
But Broos’ furrowed brow indicated he is concerned the administrators of Safa and the PSL will take the Afcon bronze as a sign all is OK. It is not.
The mother body and its professional wing often behave like opposition political parties, not custodians of the same sport. Safa is perennially broke and the PSL is rich. This means grassroots football, which produces the players, is poor, but the PSL and Safa’s poor relationship will not see this fixed. The Premiership, with its hundreds of millions of rand in sponsorships, cannot see a need to subsidise amateur football, where clubs are run on shoestring budgets by small-scale businesspeople whose passion is not matched by resources and expertise.
The short-sighted approach is apparent in the PSL not enforcing effective development at enough top flight clubs. Broos is amazed his request for the league to break earlier, before Christmas to give him more preparation time for Afcon, was turned down, but when Bafana reached the semis and came back later the league postponed a full round of matches overnight.
Amid all that, the coach, two years and nine months into his job, Nations Cup bronze medal round his neck, has not managed to obtain a response on a meeting with the PSL to discuss such issues.
“I want to talk with them and tell them how I see what the league has to do for the national team. And I will not argue with them and fight — it’s just to persuade them they have to be a bit open and not only looking at the PSL, PSL, PSL, and that there is something [else] very important and this is your national team.
“Will I succeed? I don’t know, but I want to try. I hope with the result Bafana had now [at Afcon] it can be possible — I have spoken to the [Safa] president [Danny Jordaan], saying I think we need a meeting with the PSL.
“I think the PSL has to think more globally about football in South Africa. When you see that Bafana asked to stop the competition on December 24 and they said ‘no’, but they can cancel a full day of playing in 24 hours, for me it’s not normal. You have to know that when your national team has good results automatically your football will improve.
“South African clubs do well on the continent — look at Sundowns and Orlando Pirates last year in the final of the Confederation Cup — so we do some things well. But that’s not enough. I think we have to talk about that and see the collaboration between the national team, Safa and the PSL gets better. I can’t say it’s good now.”
Broos expressed concern that many players in his squads — outside those from Mamelodi Sundowns’ world-class environment and some other teams — are not receiving additional individual training to develop them and iron out flaws. He was asked about South Africa’s striker situation, where Evidence Makgopa impressed at Afcon in the absence of Lyle Foster (mental health issues) and Lebo Mothiba (injured), but otherwise Bafana are thin in the department.
“This is something I cannot change. I can bring in a striker’s coach or a defensive coach, but what can I do in one week?
“OK, now we were together for five weeks and you saw the result. But I could work for five weeks, 24 hours a day, with the team but I can’t make a striker better — I don’t have enough time for it.
“And it doesn’t mean every club must have a striker’s coach and defensive coach, but maybe just give more individual training. I see a few players in the national team and I won’t mention names because the clubs will be angry, who, if you give them individual training, will become better. This is something PSL clubs have to know, that it’s not only the group sessions.”
For once, there is light peeking from behind the cloud that has been Bafana’s poor performance on the international stage. Broos has ideas on how the team can negotiate to a clear, sunny day. Will the administrators listen? Can they? Twenty years of moving backwards does not offer great encouragement.
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