Bafana Bafana legend Matthew Booth admits Hugo Broos’ comments on the state of South African football were correct. However, he believes he said it on a wrong platform and the timing is wrong.
Bafana just came from a 2-1 loss against Morocco in their Afcon qualifiers opener and Broos quickly slammed the country’s football for not producing high quality players.
“Ultimately, I don’t agree with him saying it in public. He was honest, but that’s not the right platform there are some things you have to keep to yourself. The timing is wrong, he just came off from a loss to Morocco, this will literally be seen as an excuse,” Booth told FARPost.
“He is in-charge of the national team, the national team should be top end motivation for players. I think he [Broos] was out of line to say such about the current crop of players. Previously, he criticised certain players saying they have no space in his team, that’s a dangerous thing to say, I think it mustn’t be said in public.”
“We can’t just look at the PSL and Bafana Bafana, his job as a national team coach must also look at our game holistically, look at our state of the game right from LFA level.”
The former Mamelodi Sundowns defender admitted to Broos’ remarks on SAFA’s poor governance.
“Our systems which are ran by SAFA are not in a healthy state, so I think that’s the reason why we’re not maximising our pool of talent. Without a doubt, we have the ability, we have the talent out there, but we not exposing it to its maximum.”
“Something needs to be done immediately and a solution is needed. We need to question ourselves whether we’re playing for fame and making money or we playing to the best of our ability on the field,” he concluded.
