Africa Cup: Bafana bomb out
Zolile Mtshelwane
5 February 2004
The fears of many South African soccer fans became a reality on Wednesday night when the country's soccer team, Bafana Bafana, failed to qualify for the next round of the African Cup of Nations tournament in Tunisia.
Bafana, who played Morocco in their last group D game, faced an impossible task when they took to the field in Sousse: to proceed to the quarterfinals of the 16-nation tournament, they had to score at least four goals without conceding any.
Playing their hearts out, but seemingly with little tactical awareness, South Africa ended their campaign with a 1-1 draw against the Moroccans.
The result condemned Bafana to also-rans in the continent's biennial spectacle, leaving Morocco and Nigeria to proceed to the quarterfinals from the "group of death". Nigeria beat Benin 2-1 in their final group match.
Once rated among the top five soccer nations on the continent, Bafana Bafana have become a mediocre outfit - going from
African champions to runners-up to third best to fourth best and finally to also-rans in the space of eight years.
In 1996, just four years after the country's readmission to international football, South Africa featured in the African Cup of Nations (ACN) for the first time - no mean feat considering the three decades of isolation local soccer had suffered due to apartheid.
South Africa hosted the 1996 tournament, and Bafana, under the guidance of flamboyant coach Clive Barker, went all the way to the finals, where they scored an emphatic 2-0 win over Tunisia.
The continent's soccer fraternity took notice, and spoke of South Africa as an emerging football powerhouse.
That was in 1996, when South African soccer lovers believed that the national squad could only get better, what with an inspirational coach, a group of experienced players, a seemingly deep pool of emerging talent, and an association flush with cash.
South Africa have qualified for all
subsequent ACN tournaments: Burkina Faso 1998, Ghana/Nigeria 2000, Mali 2002, and Tunisia 2004. The team's performance, however, has been progressively worse at each tournament - the only way down from here would be failure to qualify for 2006.
It is difficult not to blame Bafana's woes on the administrators of the game. The SA Football Association (Safa), the custodian of the country's national teams, has never failed to precipitate a crisis on the eve of a major tournament.
These crises have always revolved around two issues: the coaching post, and the availability of overseas-based players, the so-called club-versus-country saga.
Safa's switching of coaches on the eve of major tournaments is legendary. Barker, notwithstanding the success of 1996, was forced out after an ill-prepared Bafana performed dismally in the Confederations Cup in Saudi Arabia in 1997. Bafana have had six coaches since then:
- Trott Moloto bombed out due to lack of vision.
- Frenchman Phillipe Troussier was hounded out of the job after claims of arrogance by some players.
- Jomo Sono has been roped in on occasions of crisis.
- Carlos Queiroz left after failing to meet Safa's expectations of him based on his impressive curriculum vitae.
- Then there was the straight-talking Shakes Mashaba: he was suspended and subsequently fired on the eve of the Tunisia tournament.
- Styles Phumo, Mashaba's assistant, was put in charge; the less said about his record so far the better.
The ongoing club-versus-country saga was used by some Safa officials as the reason for Mashaba's dismissal. Mashaba was accused of being inflexible in refusing to accommodate overseas-based players who wanted to join Bafana's camp at a late stage due to club commitments.
It is a moot point whether the presence of South Africa's "unavailable" overseas-based players would have made a difference to Bafana's showing in Tunisia.
Some of these players,
however, made themselves unavailable for ACN qualifying games, but when Bafana were to play England in a friendly, suddenly expressed an interest in featuring for South Africa.
This did not go down well with Mashaba, who chose not to select the trio of Benni McCarthy, Mark Fish and Shaun Bartlett. That's when his troubles with Safa began ...
Safa will have to think long and hard before appointing a coach to guide Bafana Bafana through their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign.
South Africa has the footballing talent - what it needs is a good coach with time enough to mould the players into an effective unit; backed by an administration that has the players', and the supporters', needs at heart.
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