Cape Town – South African Football Association (SAFA) president Dr Danny Jordaan has initiated an important discussion as to whether local development or the exporting of players to Europe holds the key to future success for Bafana Bafana.
Jordaan started the debate last week when he sent out an email to all of the SAFA regions, discussing the merits of both approaches.
The gist of his statement revolved around the following two questions: "Is the lack of success by Bafana Bafana at major international tournaments mirrored by the decline in the number of South African players in Europe? And, "Must we work harder in development or harder in getting more and more players to top European leagues?" Jordaan however, drew no clear conclusion – instead, the SAFA boss provided arguments for and against local development.
He started by analysing the teams and performances at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and suggested that more foreign-based players equal more success for an African national team. "African successful teams have a direct link with the number of players from Europe in their teams. The recent 2017 AFCON seems to emphasise that European-based players guarantee success.
"Fact is that the majority of the teams that got knocked out in the first round are those with the lowest number of players who play in Europe and the favourites to win the tournament Ghana and Senegal has the highest number of players from Europe in their squads.
"Uganda and Zimbabwe have one and four players in Europe respectively. On the other end, Guinea-Bissau with no player from their own country or league qualified for AFCON 2017.
"This clearly shows that qualification and performance of most of these countries is not necessarily a result of an internal domestic development plan or a strong domestic professional league, but mostly by players who leave the country to play or are recruited on the basis of parents from the country of origin to Europe."
What Jordaan neglected to talk about is that Egypt, far and away the continent's most successful team with seven AFCON titles and the possibility of an eighth on Sunday when they meet with Cameroon in the final, currently (15 of the 23 players at the 2017 AFCON are based in Egypt) and historically, have built their national team success largely on domestic league players.
He also pointed to Bafana Bafana's AFCON-winning squad of 1996 and the team which did duty in the 1998 World Cup, highlighting a long list of 'key' players for the national team who were all playing their club football outside of South Africa. But he then mentions that 'The major policy shifts in the U.K. i.e. Brexit and other European countries will make mass migration of footballers into Europe difficult,' and ends his statement by saying that 'We must continue to pursue international success on the basis of building development structures, academies, leagues, train coaches, strong competitions and international participation for all our teams. Success will then be sustained!'
The South African Football Coaches Association (SAFCA) thanked Jordaan for opening the discussion and responded with a statement of their own. They were clearer in making their case, arguing that the key to future success lies in having quality local development structures with an emphasis on building the country's own footballing identity rather than diluting it with foreign influences.
"SAFCA is of the view that having more and more players from developing countries playing at European clubs does not guarantee success. Fact is these developing countries, especially those in Africa and Asia does not become part of the leading football nations because they simply copy and/or import foreign coaches and their coaching methodologies. Asia and Africa in particular need to first and foremost establish distinct, national football cultures before they can consistently win on the international stage."
SAFCA then provided some interesting examples of how the number of home-born coaches in a particular league has led to success on the world stage: "Number of local Italian coaches in Serie A 2005-2006 season: 20 out of 20 (100%) clubs had Italian coaches, and Italy won the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
"Number of Spanish coaches coaching at La Liga clubs in the 2009-2010 season, 17 out of 20 (85%) clubs had Spanish coaches and Spain won the World Cup in South Africa. "Number of German coaches in the German Bundesliga in the 2013-2014 season, 13 out of 18 (72%) clubs had German coaches, and Germany won the World Cup in Brazil."
The Premier Soccer League at the moment has 12 South African-born coaches working at 15 of the 16 clubs (Orlando Pirates are currently without a head coach). The last four senior national team head coaches were all South African. Bafana Bafana remains without a head coach after the sacking of Shakes Mashaba two months ago.
African News Agency