Durban - The former coach of the South African men's football team Pitso Mosimane has once again reiterated a need for investment in a younger group of some of the most talented players in the country.
Mosimane, back for a short while in the country, offered his views and broke down the importance of financially supporting the school's football space which has been largely neglected for years.
The current coach of Saudi Arabian side Al Ahli Saudi spoke to members of the media after he was unveiled as a new ambassador for the Nedbank Cup and took the time to express how he feels the standards of our domestic game could be improved.
The various national teams and their respective age groups have been largely inconsistent in recent times, leading to equivalent absences from continental tournaments, a trend that has plagued Bafana to an extent.
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In nearly the last three decades, Bafana have moved from potential AFCON winners and world cup qualifiers to potential AFCON qualifiers and regular watchers of the world cup.
The South African rugby standards and dedication are a constant comparison to that of football, although the two sports may differ in their complexities and environments, however, similar approaches could be applied seeing as the Springboks are the world champions.
Schoolboy tournaments like Craven Week have been regular feeders to various rugby institutes in the country for a number of years and continue to do so till this day.
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On the footballing side, Mosimane believes that the country’s biggest achilles heel is an overall reluctance to financially support the development of football at the right stages, specifically at schoolboy level.
“I think the most important thing that we miss is to develop talent, we need to develop talent and do you develop talent? You start at the schools,” he explained.
He then added: “That’s where you start (at schools), because all the children are at school, that’s why I’ve also started my own programme because not all the children play for clubs but everybody is at school.
“South African football needs to invest in sports and in schools and by that I mean tournaments, how many players play the Danone tournaments and how many are excluded so we need to invest in that and as well as coaching education so we can produce top talents that can go on to compete at the highest level.
@ScribeSmiso