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25/07/2008 14:00
Tumo Mokone
I have a trick question . . . Bafana Bafana are set to play an official match on Saturday. True or False? True, and I would bet that most of you did not know this. If the national team of a supposedly important football country like South Africa has an official international fixture, and yet more than three-quarters of the nation do not know about it, then something is seriously wrong.
For the record, Bafana meet Namibia in the quarter-finals of the Cosafa Cup in Witbank on Saturday. Bafana are defending champions, are only joining the fray at this stage of the competition having enjoyed a bye for the first round.
Namibia beat Malawi 1-0 on Thursday to win Group A and to earn the right to meet SA in the last-eight stage of the senior Southern African championship.
There are several crucial reasons as to why the participation of South Africa in this regional championship is not big news. Firstly, Safa contrived to dilute the significance of this competition by selecting a hardly recognisable team made up of players from the lower division, and a few experienced players who never been given a run in the national side.
Apart from the Moroka Swallows trio of Lefa Tsutsulupa, Ramahlwe Mphahlele (national U-20 captain) and Thulani Ngcepe (also under-20 international) the rest have no real claim to the national shirt. There is even a player by the name of Bridget Motha who hails from Durban Stars. Bridget!
To add insult to injury, the national coach, Joel Santana, is back in Brazil on holiday - just three months after his appointment.
With so much pre-season action around the country, how can it be okay for Santana to soak up the sun in Rio de Janeiro, while the national team is in its worst shape ever? National under-20 coach Serame Letsoaka is in charge in the interim.
Sound practice
Nothing with regard to the Bafana management makes sense anymore. With a mere 15 months left before the 2010 World Cup kick-off, we still do not have a team that can compete at the top level and yet we have the temerity to scoff at the Cosafa Cup.
I have said it many times before, that our success must be measured through Africa. We should have picked our strongest possible national team, so as to give the players sound practice ahead of the last two Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches - against Nigeria (Sept 6) and Equatorial Guinea (Oct 10).
Lest we forget, our qualification for this tournament in Angola is hanging by a thread. It will be a national disaster if we fail to qualify. I see nothing wrong with competing hard using our first choice team in the Cosafa Cup, more so that the likes of Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have brought out their strongest teams.
Because Safa have relegated the importance of Cosafa to the gutters, even the local media have lost interest. Everybody seems to have been seduced by the glamour and commercial clout of the Vodacom Challenge, a friendly tournament whose final will be played on the same afternoon as the national team's match.
After Manchester United are done with their pre-season camp, we will wake up to the reality that our house is still in a mess.
It's good that United are here, but their tour should not have been allowed to outshine the most important thing: our national team. But as visitors, United are not at fault. The fault lies with those who continue to mismanage our football and the national team.
Safa has described Saturday's team as a "development" side. I don't think they are even qualified to use that word, after the damage they have caused to Bafana Bafana in the name of development. The truth is that a Cosafa Cup match is a full international fixture, for which players will earn senior caps. The Fifa ranking will also consider the tournament's results, so who are they fooling?
Finally, let me take this opportunity to wish Platinum Stars and Mamelodi Sundowns well in their CAF Confederation Cup excursions in North Africa on Saturday. Stars are in Tunisia to face SC Sfaxien having mustered a 2-2 draw in the first leg, while Sundowns take their slender 1-0 lead to El-Hodoud of Alexandria in Egypt. Represent us well guys, SA football desperately needs decent results on the continent.
Tumo writes exclusively for Sport24.
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