South African football is in absolute chaos.
Safa’s hunt for a Bafana Bafana coach is getting ridiculous.
They’ve been knocked back by two renowned international coaches – Herve Renard and Carlos Queiroz.
The reported reason for this is that both men became way too expensive to employ.
This flies in the face of Safa saying that money would not be an option to get the right man for the job.
But that’s not the only thing concerning about the search.
According to the agent of Hugo Broos, who just recently won Afcon with an unfancied Cameroon, says Safa disrespected his application to be Shakes Mashaba’s successor.
The upshot of all of this is that Bafana could start their preparations for Afcon 2019 qualification without a coach.
The squad goes into camp at the start of next week ahead of friendlies and there is a very real possibility that Safa will still not have someone in place.
One positive is that the squad contains Amajita duo Luther Singh and Phakamani Mahlambi.
But that brings us to even more flawed decision making.
The rise of the Diski Challenge is worrying.
Money is being pumped into the PSL reserve league but in it’s third year it is still not producing players as it should.
A very limited number of these young players are making the step up to their respective first teams.
Just five players in in the U20 squad are regularly playing top-flight football.
Whether the players are not good enough or the coaches do not trust them is unclear. But if the truth is for either case, it’s bad news for the reserve league.
Which brings us to another problem – the handling of the NFD.
A colleague of mine and I were discussing the media’s poor coverage of SA football’s second division.
Decision makers believe that the league is not worth covering. And it’s not just the media.
He told me that the PSL are now not interested in running stories from the lower leagues.
At a time when lowly sides have shocked top-flight clubs in the Nedbank Cup, lower league football shows a lot more potential.
The NFD has always been a breeding ground for some of our top players.
The likes of Bafana stalwarts Andile Jali and Oupa Manyisa are just a couple of examples.
And while I’m not knocking the development of the Diski Challenge, but a balance must be struck for investment and exposure for the NFD.
Already PSL clubs get four times as much money from Safa and league for the running of their businesses than the NFD.
But the players produced in the lower leagues have been more accomplished.
It’s time for Safa bosses to kom reg. Or this Vision 2020 is going down a blind dead-end.