Johannesburg – Bafana Bafana have regressed over the years since the historic lifting of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) trophy 25 years ago, with players with little or no international football experience.
During that unsurpassed achievement, the country’s national football association Safa was only four years old after admission into the international football arena under the leadership of the late Solomon
“Stix’ Morewa in 1992. Since then the country successfully hosted the 2010 Fifa World Cup but there has been no progression in Bafana under subsequent coaches that took over after the 1996 Afcon-winning coach Clive Barker. The only time Bafana reached an Afcon final was as defending champions in Burkina Faso in 1998, despite having competed at nine subsequent Afcon final tournaments.
Speaking to Sunday World, Barker, 76, did not mince his words about how Bafana’s fired coach Molefi Ntseki was thrown under the bus and set up for failure following Bafana’s disastrous Cameroon 2022 campaign.
Bafana failed to qualify for the finals in Cameroon after drawing 1-1 with Ghana and losing 0-2 to Sudan last week.
The forthright Barker said Ntseki was unconvincing as a coach who would take Bafana into the highest levels of continental and world football and was destined to struggle in many fronts after taking over from Englishman Stuart Baxter in August 2019.
“He intends well, he wanted the national team to succeed but the odds were against him, especially his experience at that level. “He was only a junior national team coach before.
“That’s a big problem if players are called up and they believe they are doing everyone a big favour.
“The quality of football during both matches leaves much to be desired but that also was as a result of lack of motivation from the top,” said Barker.
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