Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has detailed what he’s looking to achieve by meeting Premier Soccer League (PSL) Chairman Dr. Irvin Khoza this week.
Broos arrived in May 2021 and shortly discovered the lack of cohesion between his employers, the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the league, where the bulk of the Bafana Bafana squad is comprised of these 16 professional clubs.
And naturally, with the national team’s talent pool based within the PSL, Broos lamented why there’s no collaboration, in terms of scheduling to accommodate player’s adequate preparation and resting periods before international breaks and more recently, the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The seven Mamelodi Sundowns players had less than five days between the AFCON camp and their last fixture at club level, which ultimately led to injuries to Thapelo Maseko, Khuliso Mudua and Mothobi Mvala, presumably due to an overload.
But he’s looking for more than just understanding for the well-being of the players but a system with the coaches, and national teams to strengthen the talent pool available for Bafana Bafana selection.
“I said already I don’t want to make 16 trips and 16 times saying the same story, to [different] coaches, how can you progress in your relationship if you go visiting every coach in private,” Broos asked about the relationship with coaches in the PSL.
“So when he asks or says something in private, I just can answer him, there will be no interaction with other coaches, what’s the use of that to travel 16 times to different clubs, so, therefore, I don’t want to do that.
“I want them together, and see that everyone says what they need to say, it’s easy – when we are together alone in a room to say something. No! Tell it when everyone is there and try to have a discussion, if there has to be one.
“You can’t progress when you discuss something, it’s what I wanted from the beginning when I was here, it’s something I will discuss with Mr. Khoza but there are other things also. We have new players, which we can only see in Bafana Bafana because the clubs won’t release the players for the Olympics or CHAN qualifiers.
“But it’s not always… I can’t always test the players for Bafana Bafana because we’re playing qualifiers, you can’t take the risk that it will not succeed, so if they can play a level lower, then they can show their skills and get international [experience]. This is important for those players and it will be easy for me to see them playing Olympics, CHAN, to see who’s ready for Bafana Bafana.”
In recent years, the CHAN squad has been selected with fringe players in the PSL and players from the second and third-tier, which has seen South Africa fail to qualify for the tournaments – while the COSAFA Cup has not been used effectively either.
“Now I [am forced] to [test] them in my team and I can do it for friendlies, but I’m sorry I can’t do it in June [for the World Cup qualifiers]. It’s impossible so therefore again I hope there’s a bit of collaboration from clubs and PSL that they release players for those games so we can build a team this is important for Bafana and South African football – we need to be in CHAN and Olympics, AFCON, World Cups,” Broos continued.
“You see now that we came third [at AFCON], suddenly everybody looks different to South Africa, so if you can be in all those tournaments, you will progress as a nation, you will progress your football, but we need a little bit of collaboration with everyone, not on your own.”
Broos stated in his conversation with SAFA President Dr. Danny Jordaan at the Soweto Derby, that he’d been assured the meeting would take place this week – but no confirmation has been given as of yet.
“I saw Mr Jordaan at the game on Saturday at the game and he said okay this week we will talk to Mr Khoza, when? I don’t know, we will see. But I really hope that the meeting will go on, I hope,” Broos added.
“I’ll wait now for confirmation when we will see each other, I don’t know when.”
