When Pitso Mosimane mentioned that South Africa was 20 years behind Morocco in terms of football growth and advancement, he was sworn at, cursed and called names.
A few months later, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos criticised the quality South African players and the general state of football in the country. For that the Belgian was scolded, reprimanded and threatened.
The SA football followers said he was being disrespectful to the country and to his employers at Safa. They went as far as calling for his head and for him to resign because he did not believe in our players.
Even former Bafana Bafana striker and Orlando Pirates striker Kermit Erasmus jumped into the conversation and defended his teammates “Why do we have a coach who doesn’t believe in our talent and league. Sorry for thinking out loud?”
At that time, Mosimane had spent about two months in Morocco, where he was attending coaching courses and some other club duties for his then team Al Ahly of Egypt. “South African football is 20 years behind Morocco and 50 years behind the Uefa Champions League in terms of football standards and development,” Mosimane told yours truly at the time.
“Here in SA there’s football, there’s rugby and there’s cricket. In Morocco it’s only football – or there’s politics and religion, but football is the only sport. Morocco have been aggressive in their development and I have no doubt that they will lead African football in the near future. North African governments and their people support the local teams. Here in SA you find about 20 fans at some matches – look at everywhere we play, the stadium is full three hours before the match,” Mosimane added.
Broos, on the other hand, thought he was providing an assessment and solutions when he said that the standard of the PSL is not high enough. “The problem in South Africa is that we don’t have high quality players like Morocco, Ghana and Senegal.
We don’t have those quality players that are playing in Europe because those clubs do not know the SA players. Let’s face the problem that the level of the PSL is not high enough because there is no interest in our players from Europe.”
The backlash was so severe that he ended up having to apologise – for speaking the truth.
The point is that us South Africans cannot handle the truth.
Watching Morocco make history by becoming the first country to reach the Fifa World Cup semifinals vindicated Mosimane. With all the facilities in SA, Mzansi is still struggling to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and the African Nations Championship.
If we are still scraping the bottom of the barrel to win the Cosafa Cup, when are we going to reach the World Cup quarterfinals?
Do we have the right people in charge of our football? Do we have player scouts? Are enough funds being channelled from the Safa head office to the junior structures and local football associations?
Do we have long-term goals and a vision… So many questions. Merry Christmas and see you in the new year.
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