The Africa Cup of Nations will be a big test for Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos, who has to deal with the headache of not having enough time to work with the players before the competition, due to the DStv Premiership fixture calendar stretching all the way to December 31. SAFA have been in contact with the PSL to try to find a way to get the national team to have players fresh for the tournament, which takes place in Ivory Coast between 13 January and 11 February, but it appears there is no middle ground. Preparations could be seriously hampered. Soccer Laduma looks into the matter and why the national team is likely to be affected by the ongoing saga.
What The Siya Crew Has Been Told…
Belgian-born Hugo Broos, who has arguably the hottest seat in South African football as Bafana Bafana head coach, will have a difficult few weeks leading up to the Africa Cup of Nations as he has officially come to learn that the relationship between the country's football governing body, SAFA, and the Premier Soccer League is not always as smooth as it should be.
The septuagenarian has come out publicly to voice his displeasure in how the League has not considered the national team's preparation for the biennial tournament when compiling the fixtures. The last fixtures of the first half of the season will be played on New Year's Eve, but the crucial piece of information lies in that most of the players who are likely to feature in the squad for Afcon will play the day before that.
All of Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United are expected to play on December 30, with Orlando Pirates set to be in action the day before.
The Afcon is due to start on January 13 next year, with South Africa's opening match against Mali set to be played three days later. This gives Broos less than two weeks to prepare for the opening match of the competition, with players having little rest in-between to take part in a competition that will certainly demand a lot from them, given the quality each country possesses within their squads.
According to information received by the Siya crew, SAFA made efforts on numerous occasions to speak to the PSL about the fixtures. Broos has complained, but it seems to have all fallen on deaf ears. The outspoken coach wanted the players to at least have a week's rest before going into Bafana camp, but that won't happen now with the fixtures set to be played until the end of December. He, therefore, is set to have a squad of unrested players and that could have a negative effect on how the team performs in Ivory Coast, where the Afcon will be staged.
It's understood that there are some high-ranking members at SAFA who are not pleased with how the PSL have handled matters, feeling that they are not doing enough to try to help the national team cause.
"SAFA has made an effort to try to get the PSL to speak to the PSL about this issue. They have written letters to the PSL, but that has not changed anything. From what I understand, there have been no meetings between SAFA and the PSL on this matter. The PSL is going ahead as planned until the last days of December and Bafana Bafana will have to find a way to work around this," an insider told Soccer Laduma.
According to information received by this publication, the PSL was tied in how they would be able to handle things, with the African Football League coming into play, as well as the return of the Carling Knockout, previously known as the Telkom Knockout. The competition meant that the League had to squeeze in more fixtures into an already tight schedule, making it difficult to even consider the request made by SAFA for the league programme to be put on pause at least before Christmas.
It's understood that the PSL also did not want the fixtures to go beyond May due to the fact that the end-of-season play-offs must be played and the winner there has to get enough time to rest before the 2024/25 season gets underway. The topflight's last matches will be played on May 25, 2024.
What Are The Facts?
As things stand, the Bafana Bafana players are only expected to report to camp in the first few days of January to start preparing for the Afcon, which is not ideal for the head coach. This does not sit well with Broos, who has to get the squad ready for the opening match against Mali, as well as the other group games against Namibia and Tunisia respectively.
What's challenging for the PSL at the moment is that there have already been a few fixtures that have been moved for various reasons, making the schedule even tighter than it initially was. With the Brazilians competing in the CAF Champions League, and SuperSport United and Sekhukhune United in the Confederation Cup, there is a big chance that fixtures are still going to be moved, which is why the decision makers at Mayfair have found it difficult to work with SAFA in getting the fixtures to end earlier in December.
Matsatsantsa, in particular, have all their Confederation Cup matches in North Africa and, depending on their travelling plans, some of their domestic encounter might need to be moved to accommodate their schedule on the continent. Clubs are not obliged to release players outside of the FIFA window, so Broos has no chance of getting the players to go into camp or to rest a week before they meet. With injuries coming left, right and centre recently, the 71-yearold mentor could find himself having to call-up players who have not featured much for the national team for a tournament as big as Afcon. Scary!
The Siya crew tried to get hold of the PSL to comment on the matter, but they were not available at the time of going to print.
The Story Behind The Scenes
No time for friendly matches?
Soccer Laduma understands that it will be difficult for SAFA to secure friendly matches for the national team before the start of the tournament due to there being so little time. Depending on when they travel to Ivory Coast, Bafana could get one friendly game to prepare, or at most two, if the mother body are able to get things done in a short space of time. Broos, however, would still want his players to get sufficient rest before the showpiece and would not want there to be any injuries to disrupt his preparations. It's proving to be a challenge for the coach.
Sundowns players are the big worry
A big part of the Belgian's squad is made up of Sundowns players and they are still going to go through a hectic period before the final encounter of the year on December 30. As things stand, the Chloorkop-based side have four games in hand to second-placed SuperSport, so they are going to start playing catch-up in the league. The CAF Champions League group stage is due to start next weekend and will be played until December 20, just before Christmas. The likes of Ronwen William, Teboho Mokoena, Mothobi Mvala, Themba Zwane, Grant Kekana, Thapelo Maseko and Aubrey Modiba are players Broos is most likely to have in his final squad, but the challenge will be the amount of matches they have played and whether or not they are able to avoid injury between now and then. Already Broos has been dealt a blow with Kekana and Maseko having to be withdrawn from the current squad that's set to play Benin and Rwanda in crucial World Cup qualifiers.
Can Broos use this as an excuse?
Despite all the challenges Broos is facing with regards to the PSL and its fixtures, there will still be high expectations from the public to perform well at Afcon, especially because the Belgian comes with the reputation of having led Cameroon to a title in the past. The challenge for the 71-year-old is having to perform miracles with a squad that might not be as fresh as he would like.
Booth: The real question is…
The Siya crew got in touch with former Bafana Bafana defender Matthew Booth to talk about the fixture dilemma giving Hugo Broos a headache ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations.
"It's not an ideal situation. I think for a tournament of this nature, you ideally want three to four weeks of proper preparation, similarly to a World Cup. Because the Afcon is in January, it's always been difficult to prepare, especially when it takes place every two years. I believe that the event is watered down by hosting it too often and they should revert to a four-year calendar to make it more prestigious and sought-after. Because it's every two years, it creates a lot of issues with player availability. The local PSL has also had a congested calendar, with the Carling Knockout, MTN8 and Sundowns' participation in the AFL (African Football League), plus the local league. So, I don't think the blame can solely be on the PSL's shoulders. I can understand why they want to get in some games on December 31st. But the real question is what sort of dialogue has occurred between SAFA and the PSL? What sort of relationship exists between the two, in order to help the coach? That's the question we should really be asking. From the outside, it does not seem like there is a very good relationship and that's what we have to fix, because ultimately it's going to hinder the preparation of our national team."
