It’s been 20-years since Bafana Bafana won a major tournament. And for Neil Tovey, the South African Football Association's (Safa) Technical Director, that’s a very long time for any national team to go without any silverware.
What sparked the reaction from the former Bafana skipper who led South Africa to their first and only Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) triumph back in 1996 was the current generation of players' failure to qualifier for the biennial continental showpiece set to take place in Gabon early next year.
Speaking at launch of the Stix Morewa Tournament set to take place on September 11 at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Tovey described the current generation of players as lacking the 'desire and passion' that comes with playing for their own national team.
“To draw two matches at home (during this year’s Afcon qualifiers) was criminal,” a visibly peeved Tovey said.
“We should be winning our home games with impressive score lines, like 4-0 or 4-1 or so. If we can do that, then produce draws playing away, then I don’t see anything stopping us to qualify for any major tournament.
“Another thing is that our players are no longer hungry to play for the national team” he added.
“It’s no longer a do or die situation for them.
“During our playing days, the guys took pride in wearing the national team jersey, and always played their hearts out for the country, always.
“I’m not saying that this current generation of players do not have that, but the desire (to do well for the national team) is not enough.
“The other contributing factor is that, they are earning huge amounts of money in their respective clubs locally,” Tovey explained.
“I’m not saying that is wrong, however, that has affected their desire or aspirations to see themselves playing in Europe. Those leagues developed players like Mark Fish, Donald 'Ace' Khuse,Philemon Masinga, Lucas Radebe, Benni (McCarthy) and Steven Pienaar, you name them, who were absolutely phenomenal (for the national team).”
Mokoko, as Tovey is affectionately known, added that Ephraim Shakes’ Mashaba and his charges must push to qualify for the 2018 Fifa World Cup set to take place in Russia, after having failed to do so for next year’s Afcon tournament.
“We want to qualify for every tournament” Tovey said. “I’m not saying it should be Shakes’ mandate as head coach, but we, as an association, want to participate in every major tournament that’s out there for us to compete in.”
Meanwhile, Tovey said Safa are still waiting for Banyana Banyana coach Vera Pauw to present her report regarding why her squad failed to progress past the group stage during their participation in the Olympics.
Banyana were knocked out in the first round after failing to produce a single win in any of their matches.
“The decision is not entirely up to me,” Tovey said. “I’m a part of a technical committee which will meet in two weeks time to discuss this matter. The appointment and firing of any coach is discussed in these meetings.
“We cannot jump the gun because they (Banyana) just returned from the Rio Olympics. Vera still needs to summit her report regarding why they failed to progress further in the Olympics.” - The Star