Menzi Magubane
After Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos controversially said that South African football “lacks quality”, football fans across the country have rallied to support him.
The Belgian seemed to have hit the mark on Tuesday in his press conference, saying the level of South Africa’s top flight football is not high enough for Bafana to succeed.
He accused South African players of lacking quality and said it is the reason why they can’t attract European clubs.
The 70-year-old has received his fair share of criticism in the past, but this time around he received widespread applause from fans across the country, who share his frustration with the state of the sport in this country.
Former Orlando Pirates coach Zipho Dlangalala said it was time South Africa faced the facts.
“What Hugo Broos said is nothing new; coach Benni McCarthy raised it not long ago. We must be honest. Sometimes we need to be honest about certain things in order to find solutions.
“As sad as it is, there’s nothing wrong with what coach Hugo Broos said, it’s about who said it,” said Dlangalala.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns youth coach also blamed his colleagues for not being united in finding solutions to the country’s football challenges.
“One of the biggest challenges in our football is that local coaches are not united. They hardly talk about South African football challenges and help each other find solutions. What Broos said is not new and it is fact, it’s just that he doesn’t have solutions either.
“No coach can solve South African football challenges.”
In his press conference Broos was expected to report on what went wrong last Thursday when Bafana Bafana lost to Morocco in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers Group K opening match.
But he skipped that and instead pointed fingers at the low level of quality of the country’s football.
The Belgian’s next assignment is in September against underdogs in the group, Liberia. Both Bafana and Liberia lost their opening matches to Morocco.
Playing at home, supporters will be expecting Bafana to win this match to revive their hopes of qualifying for next year’s tournament in Ivory Coast.
