Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has defended his selection of players to the national team and why he hasn’t picked players from Kaizer Chiefs, accusing certain media of favouritism towards their favoured clubs.
Bafana take on Tanzania in an international friendly at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday evening and then against Mozambique next Tuesday at the same venue.
Among the players called up for this camp is Kulumani Ndamane of TS Galaxy and Broos was asked if including the 21-year-old in the team this time around meant he didn’t pay any attention to the criticism.
The Belgian mentor said he makes his choices independently while also addressing what he sees as an agenda from the media, especially with regards to players from Amakhosi.
“That is a question of choice from my side,” said Broos at a press conference in Polokwane.
“Taking this one and not this one is sometimes tactics, sometimes the opponent, also sometimes because this guy is number three or four in the ranking of that position.
“And for people outside, they’re always linking players to clubs. So, when I drop a player from [Orlando] Pirates, they say ‘ah it’s a player from Pirates’. When I don’t take players from [Kaizer] Chiefs, it’s like I killed someone. It has nothing to do with clubs when I make choices.
“The goal of making choices is that you try to make a national team as strong as possible to play your games because you want to win it. And it doesn’t matter if you play with players of Chiefs or Pirates or players abroad or whatever. The only thing you have to do is to win.
“And this is for me the only thing on which I make choices I try to have the most, strongest team to play our games.
“And I know, and I feel that that some journalists are linked with clubs. They are supporters of that club. And you know, for a supporter, it’s very difficult to accept if you don’t take a player from his team.
“So, it’s not really the fact that that you choose, it is because he’s a player of that team, and I’m supporting, that is what happens sometimes here, and I feel that.
“But I never looked at it and I will never look at it. I make my choices completely independent of who or where the player is playing. I just choose a player because of these qualities and his talent.”
Did you know that the iDiski Times Digital Newspaper is completely free! Download it now by clicking the button below or fill in the form to have it sent to you every week.
