South African football is in a crisis

Following the recent failure of Bafana Bafana, Under-23 (Baby Bafana) and Amajita... one can boldly declare that our football is in a crisis state... only Safa (South African Football Association) President Kirsten Nematandani will dispute this material fact!

Now, a lot has contributed to this accelerated decline, for now, I’ll focus on a one 10th of the problem.

The adopted selection criteria... our fans, media, coaches, cheerleaders and all that bunch of patheticians have this misleading belief that for the national team, players should be selected based on form.

That is complete nonsense... for national team, players should be selected based on class, one should show consistent good performances over a long period of time, i.e., at least a season.

This thing of selecting playas like Wayne Sandilands, Musa Nyatama, Hlompho Kekana, Lehlohonolo Majoro, Ruben Cloete, Mzivukile Tom, Sthembiso Ngcobo, George Lebese etc are taking us nowhere, sure, at some point they were on form, but did they sustain it?

In the current crop of newcomers, only Oupa Manyisa and Andile Jali deserve their place, as they’ve been consistent for a sustained period!

Now, let this May Mahlangu boy maintain his form for at least a third of the next season, and then I’ll make noise about him.

By Sidwell 'Feesh' Francis