Africa puts best foot forward

Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday February 13, 2024 06:00

The action has been exhilarating, the attendance, impressive while the officiating even drew praises from respected gaffer, Jose Mourinho. It will be interesting to find out the crowd that watched last night’s final between Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire. Since day one, the tournament has become infectious such that the living rooms will be a lonely place with the action now behind us. The upsets and the super saves, including the heroics of one Ronwen Williams from across the border, will live long in most people’s memories. The majority of southern African fans were understandably rooting for South Africa’s Bafana Bafana and the team did not disappoint. Largely made up of locally based players, Mzansi was not given much chance to progress further in a competition that attracted Africa’s finest talent from overseas.

But Bafana Bafana defied the odds and will touch down at the OR Tambo airport with a bronze medal, their best showing in 24 years. Hugo Broos built his team around an impressive array of talent drawn from dominant local champions, Mamelodi Sundowns. Abafana Ba Style, as Sundowns are affectionately known, have been the model force on the domestic and continental front. They have been to the FIFA World Club Cup and have been the standout side in the CAF Champions League. This run has been beneficial to the national team, with Broos admitting that his job was made much easier by the inclusion of the majority of Sundowns players. One would be forgiven to let their mind wander and imagine if the same can be replicated within the Zebras set-up. National team call-ups should be based on merit and also reflect the dominant forces on the domestic scene.

Jwaneng Galaxy has been the undisputed leading local club in the last two seasons, taking the domestic title as well as twice advancing to the group stages of the CAF Champions League. They have decent local talent and this should be reflected by the composition of the Zebras. Galaxy deserves to have more players in the national set-up, purely on meritocracy and not favouritism. There is no room for sentiments as South African coach, Broos proved by omitting all Kaizer Chiefs players from his national team. He has nothing against Chiefs, but Broos ignored sentiments and selected his side based on merit. That is how it should be done, and not how popular a team is. The hope is that Botswana administrators saw how prepared Cote d’Ivoire was for this nations’ cup, in terms of infrastructure and general organisation, which was top notch.

After the failed 2027 AFCON bid, the guess is that Botswana will be back in the hosting discussions in the not too distant future. This time, things should be done right and not in a hurried manner. On the technical side, the Zebras should have drawn a lesson or two from the likes of Cape Verde, the spirit of Namibia and the determination of Bafana Bafana. Over to you Morocco in 2025 to continue showing the world that Africa is indeed more than capable to chart its own path. Let us change the negative narratives.