I do not in a single sense
condone the failure to utilize the home-ground-advantage of the boys but my
problem is embarrassing the family men like that in the media.
The pain of watching the helpless
Bafana go down out of the group stages as hosts is unbearable, ask any soccer
loving South African and they will tell you. In fact, truth be told our senior
national team has NEVER qualified for any major tournament after 2004. They
were always handed a ticket as hosts or having to sit with us and watch other
'boys' on TV. Who can forget the pain of crashing out of the 2010
World Cup of which they had
failed to qualify for as well after a defeat to Uruguay.
My point in all this the
Footballing body in the country SAFA needs
a proper restructuring on its own and be manned by the former footballers but
that does not mean that we should allow politics to interfere with the
beautiful game. The sports minister took liberty in hauling all sorts of
insults to the national team, even going as far as singling out the keeper.
What does the minister expect his utterances to do to Moeneeb Josephs as a
person? Some may argue that it is a constructive criticism but i beg to differ,
knowing personally that you have let the country down is one thing, but having
the leaders of the same country label you a loser and a disgrace on national
television is another.
I am sure we are not ready as a
country to face the Benni
vs Bafana issue in future
because now our players are afraid of making mistakes since it will be all talk
of town. we have a lot of aspiring and talented youngsters who can play
at the highest level but will they agree to play for the national team because
the first mistake they make will be on the news all week. We recently endured
another debacle of that nature with the talented Thulani Serero apparently faking an injury and
your Steven
Pienaar retiring from the
national team. Expect a lot of this kind of stories in future if the
politicians do not canvas for the elections but instead insult the boys.
This may even turn worse if FIFA
decides to imporse what it did to the country during the Apartheid regime.
Isn't this the very same reason why the country's sports were banned from
international stage? Because of political interference?
can the politicians of this
country stick to their manifestos and let the football legends deal with the
crisis we are facing as the football fraternity please...
As I see it…
