With Bafana only dreaming about qualifying for the World Cup, all-time leading goal-scorer Benni McCarthy has suggested SAFA let down a team that should be easily reaching the knockout stages.
Bafana are only starting to build a team that looks like it can compete in major tournaments, after Hugo Broos' charges won a bronze medal at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, for the first time in 24 years.
South Africa are currently bidding to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 22 years, as they have not made through to the world showpiece via a qualification process since 2002.
READ: McCarthy Emotional About Missing Chiefs Pirates Jobs
The decline for Bafana started when the exciting young talent that reached the final of the 1997 African Youth Championship, qualified for the U20 World Cup for the first time and also competed at the 2000 Olympics, notably beating Brazil, was not properly put together and maintained for the senior side, according McCarthy, who was one of the outstanding youngsters during that generation.
"That U20 team was fire, I think SAFA missed the trick there, if they had kept that team together, growing, with that team!" McCarthy enthused in an interview on Podcast and Chill with MacG.
"I think at least we would probably be in the (senior) World Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals. That team we went to play in the World Cup U20 and the Olympics, we beat the Ronadinhos, Ronaldos, we made them look bang average.
"We played against France and they had Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, (David) Trezeguet my man, they could not do nothing over us, we were standouts and they (SAFA) dismantled that team," McCarthy added.
READ: Lorch's Sundowns Future With Cardoso
The team that played from the U20 African Youth Championship, World Youth Championship and 2000 Olympics between 1997 and 2000 included players such as Delron Buckley, Daniel Matsau, Matthew Booth, David Kannemeyer, Junaid Hartley, Ashley Makhanya, Stanton Fredericks, Steve Lekoelea, Patrick Mbuthu, Lucky Maselesele, Quinton Fortune and McCarthy among others.
Bafana, equal on points with leaders Rwanda in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Africa qualifying group, will resume their campaign against Lesotho and Benin in March next year.
