Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says he won’t be selecting the squads for the COSAFA Cup and CHAN tournaments amid PSL clubs refusing to release players.
Last week, Broos admitted he was bewildered by the lack of support from DStv Premiership clubs and the Premier Soccer League when it comes to releasing players who are showing potential to represent the national team in the regional and continental tournaments.
And while they have now been forced to turn to the lower leagues to find players, he admits Helman Mkhalele is the man in charge to make the final calls on the upcoming squad selections.
“I don’t know enough about the first division, I can’t inform [an opinion on the players], I’ll ask Helman, he is more the guy who can help for that,” Broos confirmed.
“I don’t know enough of the first division, so I can’t really help with that, so I think it will be more Helman, there’s been some meeting about that to look for first division players to have a team, that will not be going to AFCON.
“But in fact, it’s not a bad thing, for us, for Bafana Bafana, there’s already a link with first division, so it’s not so bad, and the other side, what I said already on Thursday, it’s a pity, that we can’t give chances for players like Grant Margeman, Thapelo Maseko, Keanin Phillips and all those other young players who aren’t really ready for Bafana.
“But we give them international experience in a tournament like this but yeah okay, clubs don’t want to release the players, so we have to look at another solution, which is not bad and we’re happy with for the moment.”
The 2023 COSAFA Cup will take place between 5 and 16 July in Durban, which falls in the middle of pre-season and with the tournament not being in the official FIFA calendar, clubs are not obliged to release their players.
