Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos stated that the need for players to be made available for the COSAFA Cup would provide invaluable experience for the future.
South Africa are hosting the tournament once again, and in the last few campaigns, have struggled to secure the squad they wanted, often featuring young inexperienced players and free agents.
However, this time around, Broos is hopeful for more cooperation for the Premier Soccer League and clubs to be willing to allow the 23 players they looking for to offer a platform to build their experience for the senior national team. In the meantime, they have announced a strong 50-man preliminary squad.
“I have an idea, the question is, will they follow my idea, and they [I mean], the league,” Broos said about the Cosafa Cup before the recent 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
“Two years ago, we started with a U23 team in Cosafa. And we won it, and then we went on with this team, I think qualifiers for CHAN, and suddenly the PSL and teams didn’t want to release their players anymore.
“We had to beg on our knees to have players to play qualifiers for CHAN – so I hope now, I hope now, as you said this is very important [to have U23 players active]. We have a lack of U23 between Bafana Bafana, a lack of international experience.
“Take players like, let’s say three months ago, Mokwana, Moremi, Mbanjwa, even Maswanganyi, they don’t have any international experience. If you could get a team like that and let them play Cosafa, they could play later qualifiers for AFCON, for Olympics and so on.
“You won’t have that lack [of experience] anymore. And when you’re good enough, you will be with the national team and have experience, not just CAF Champions League or Confederation Cup experience but international experience, that can help us a lot.
“So we have a list of players, we will give the list to PSL, to select 23 players from that list and we’ll see. I hope we get them, I hope, but not more…”
The tournament kicks off on 26 June until 7 July.
