South Africa needs a reserve league, urgently!

The way our junior national teams coaches struggle to get the players they need for their matches is a disgrace. It shows how ignorant this country is when it comes to development.

It is stupid to expect any degree of success from the senior national team when the youth teams are being ignored. The best football nations in the world owe their success to their up to date development structures. Sadly for this country, football development is just not being handled correctly or taken seriously.

In all fairness, we can’t expect our junior national teams to succeed in competitions like the world youth champions and the Olympic games without good players and adequate preparation. Qualifying for the above mentioned games will always be a struggle and South Africa will remain the weeping boys of world football. Until the custodians of our game sit together and plan a better way forward, we can just forget about being a force to be reckoned with in the international arena.

It is disappointing that a country that claims to be a football nation doesn’t have a reserve league. Coaches Shakes Mashaba (under-23’s) and Khabo Zondo (under-20’s) would not be struggling so much to put teams together for their games if they had young players playing competitive football weekly. Amabinneplaas would have taken a stronger development team to their tournament in Sudan. By not taking our junior national teams and the development structures seriously, we are missing an opportunity to develop our football and our players to meet the high standards that are currently being displayed all over the world.

PSLteams will always be reluctant to release their regular players for junior national team duty, especially when they have crucial matches in like at this stage of the league campaign where the likes of Ajax Cape Town and Orlando Pirates cannot do without inform players like Thulani Serero and Andile Jali just to name a few.

There are many talented youngsters in the Psl teams who are kicking their heels on the bench or watching their teams play like spectators on the stands instead of playing competitively every week in the reserve league to stay sharp and focused. Unfortunately it is these fringe players that our youth coaches have to call up for national duty and it’s not an ideal situation for the country.

Safa, the Psl and all other relevant stakeholders must sit down and find a way to have the reserve league up and running. It will definitely benefit everyone the state of our football will be much better.

By Siphiwe Hlongwane