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Our professional soccer players have become too soft

Time for our boys to man-up

Posted: 2011-12-07 12:37

South Africa’s slide down the pecking order within the context of the African continent is alarming, and there appears to be very little in the way of light at the end of the tunnel.

Bafana Bafana have done progressively worse since winning the African Nations Cup back in 1996. Failure to have qualified for the last two AFCON tournaments is embarrassing and unacceptable for a country that hosted the World Cup and which possesses, compared to the rest of the continent, outstanding resources.

And it doesn’t look much better at youth level following the national Under-23s’ poor showing at the Olympic qualifiers – two points from nine. We should have won the first two matches, but lacked the killer instinct and discipline needed to finish the games off.

Then Amajita’s 5-0 hammering by Zambia saw them fail to progress in the Cosafa Under-20 Cup, finishing behind Zambia and minnows Tanzania.

We can blame SAFA’s ineptitude and its lack of development structures. But, on the other hand, the Absa Premiership is where our players learn the ropes, where they earn their bread and butter, and where they play week-in, week-out.

It’s hard to argue that the PSL is not the best league in Africa. It’s flush with money, well administrated, and appears to be as corruption-free as one could hope for.

For the most part, players are paid very well. Pitches and stadiums are in world-class condition, players have access to top coaching methods, facilities and medical treatment.

Players get to live in upmarket complexes, drive flashy cars, dress like pop stars and own smart phones and iPads. Social Media and quick access to information has enabled even the most average of players to become a celebrity.

In short, South African soccer players are able to enjoy the lifestyles of those professionals in Europe (obviously not quite on the same level as the big leagues such as England, Spain, Italy and Germany).

We have seen in recent years that many of our players have returned from Europe – why endure the cold in Denmark and Russia when similar dollars can be earned on our sunny shores?

South Africa as a country is a lot closer to being a ‘First World’ Nation than the rest of the continent. We have a (relatively) good economy, even if the average man on the street still struggles to put bread on the table.

According to Wikipedia, “South Africa is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank, one of only four countries in Africa in this category (the others being Botswana, Gabon and Mauritius). It has the largest economy in Africa, and the 28th-largest in the world.”

And in turn the PSL is up there with most of the European leagues, with top facilities and with excellent sponsorship.

In short, we are head and shoulders above all our African contemporaries. Yet we are falling further and further behind on the field as the likes of Niger, Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Botswana and Togo show us up.

Are we perhaps suffering from the ‘rich-kid’ syndrome – the child who has everything given to him on a silver platter, who takes things for granted? Who now feels he is entitled to things, to a certain standard of living and lavish lifestyle?

Looking at our approach to the African Champions League and the CAF Cup, it certainly appears that we have become snobs.

We couldn’t be bothered. We’re not up for bumpy pitches, hostile crowds, strange food and cultures, and dubious match officials. We prefer our World Cup stadiums, our Holiday Inns, our Naturena’s and our other home comforts.

The problem, and irony, is the further away we have moved from other African countries in terms of our league and our living standards (as far as the average professional football player is concerned), the tougher we have found it to perform on the continent – its showed in terms of both our club’s performances and in terms of our national teams’ dismal showings.

Our easy lifestyle and our tendency to see ourselves above the rest of Africa has come back to bite us.

It’s time that our players toughen up and man-up. Maybe it’s just me getting older, but our national team these days seems more like a bunch of kids. Not like the men we had back in the day – warriors like Radebe, Fish, Buthelezi, Motaung, Moeti, Bartlett and Tinkler.

These are players who I couldn’t picture being too bothered about Twitter updates, MP3 players, Mini Coopers or deodorant adverts.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you agree with Anthony’s argument?

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Kali: 2011-12-07 13:21

There are undeniable facts in this article, especially when mention of disdain for continental championships is mentioned. While one needs to acknowledge that times have changed and football has become more of a lifestyle than pure sport, especially for players, it still cannot be refuted that there are very few "warriors" in the PSL today. In fact, the only true warriors do not originate from these shores. In my view, it indeed can be narrowed down to:
1. Money, the maker and breaker of all things good.
2. Apathy by club bosses and the media when it comes to continental championships
3. The pampared kid syndrome- how many times to we read of a coach complaining that the ref was biased. One would think other countries had something against SA!
4. The media making instant heroes out of quite ordinary players. I don't know how many times I've read accolades for a player who merely did the basics, scored 10 goals in his maiden season, then struggled to score half that number in the next.
All in all, a combination of factors.

Jiri: 2011-12-07 16:20

The reason is not the money but standard of play.SA has the best organized league in the developing world and better than some developed nations but he standard of football is pathetic. Save for the Soweto derby all other matches are drab. In the past the team used to be filled with players playing in europe with one or two locally baseed. Now it's vice versa and the results speak for themselves.

People_Lie: 2011-12-07 16:58

My view the reason why no African country has never won the world cup is because we rely too much on foreign coaches, that means we do not have self believe in our abilities. Our players are obsesed with playing overseas. It happens all the time key bafana players go to overseas become bench warmers loose fitness put in some weight cost the team in the process.

There was sterward baxter to my opinion that was when we seriously declined. Funny enough there was the terrible three at
pierates at that time the late Gift leremi, vilakazi and cheeseboy if those three were used they were going to yeild results in the end we ended up not qualifying for the world.

My opinion Bafana is a strong team all the teams preparing to face bafana they prepare thoroughly. When Pitso said the are no strikers he painted the wrong picture he could have at least said he cant see any other strikers he prefers. Nomvete was there he could help him qualify it does not mean because he is building he cant mix young and old. South Africa was going to be favourites at the finals hence the people are chanting that Sangoma must be paid.

Overall I think we have to belief more in ourself stop looking too far for expensive quick fix solutions. U17, U 20, U 23 should qualify for major tournaments that way our players will go to overses on time and they will be well established when we need them for Bafana. On the positive we were down but we have started to improve and I am hoping we wont repeat the same mistakes.

Dooba OPC: 2011-12-08 09:30

There is only one solution and we have been singing about it for past few years. Development, development, development- it is one thing to say you have reserved money for development, it is another to put development structures together, and it is also another to monitor the efficiency of those development structures (meaning you have good people doing the doing)! So it seems we have people saying the saying and telling us how much money is reserved for development. But they forget other countries develop players without budgets and still manage to mould the best. So to SAFA, we dont need your money or your politics, just hire people to do the job for you or else resign or stop bothering us...

Mmusi: 2011-12-08 09:39

If we continue to lie to ourselves then which solutions will we find? There is nothing alarming by our diski and Kirsten Nematandani was right on 'NO CRISIS' as SA has never added ar minused anything from 1992. The line in your argument, 'Maybe it’s just me getting older, but our national team these days seems more like a bunch of kids. Not like the men we had back in the day – warriors like Radebe, Fish, Buthelezi, Motaung, Moeti, Bartlett and Tinkler,' is disturbing. The fact is that these 'warriors' won at home like you said not on bumpy pitches. Their road to France 98 was paved with Zaire, to be later be DRC, being forced to play their home games away, where they lost home advantage. Barker was tactically inferior, hence the immediate demise after class of 1996.

Nothing has changed in our football, 1996 was the luck of a roll of a dice and superstitions like Madiba Magic, never losing with reckless Linda in the pitch etc...

Brown: 2011-12-12 15:21

@Mmusi
Nothing has changed in our football, 1996 was the luck of a roll of a dice and superstitions like Madiba Magic, never losing with reckless Linda in the pitch etc...
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You forgot 1 thing, if it was not for indecision. Tovey would have been at the 1998 world and Issa wouldn't be there. Those 2 own goals by issa would have changed to Tovey inspired draw. By the way if you forgot, who did France beat in the 1998 World Cup Final and what was score?