Coach the coaches: Licence standards and access to programs a huge SA problem
The standard of South African football and players has been groot nuus in Mzansi lately.
Last month, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos sparked a helse debate on the quality of players produced in the PSL.
And there was quite a bit of backlash from his local colleagues about what the Belgian said.
Mamelodi Sundowns’ former national team caretaker Steve Komphela was the most prominent coach to hit back at Broos.
Bafana legend Doctor Khumalo went even further, telling the Afcon 2017-winning coach to waai if he doesn’t smaak what he sees here in SA’s talents.
Of course, Broos was spot on with his assessment. Waneer laas did we have a star in a top team to cheer on or get excited about in the national team?
But we can’t talk about the state of South African football without talking about the standard of coaching.
Only this week, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza had to explain himself for hiring Spaniard Jose Riveiro to coach his club Orlando Pirates.
Riveiro, who was fired from his last job in Finland back in October, arrives as the sixth foreign head coach at Bucs in the last 10 years.
With Brazilian Julio Cesar Leal delivering the Sea Robbers’ last PSL title in the 2011-2012 and Serbian Vladimir Vermezovic (2014 Nedbank Cup) and German Josef Zinnbauer (2020 MTN8) securing their most recent silverware, Khoza believes he is justified looking abroad.
He also made a thinly-veiled attack on SA coaches, who he reckons may not be willing to get all the help they need to up their game.
He says: “South African guys, they don’t like to travel. They like being domesticated.
“In the past, they used to go to the UK and the USA.
“But coaches have to spend money out of their own pockets to better themselves.”
Khoza did, however, bring up an important point when talking about the standardisation of football coaching qualifications.
Many local coaches have Safa diplomas. Some have Uefa coaching licence, while others study through various European FAs.
One big problem facing SA coaches is the Confederation of African Football (Caf) qualification.
While Caf requires that coaches competing in their competitions have strictly Caf coaching licences or an Uefa Pro Licence, the global gold standard, the African body has not been running their qualification for the past two years.
For Cape Town City, it could prove to be a problem come their participation in Champions League next season.
With coach Eric Tinkler holding a Uefa A Licence, he may be forced out of the dugout.
City are fortunate enough to have a way around the issue if it comes up, with their Diski Challenge coach Ian Taylor boasting Uefa Pro papiere.
In the absence of standard coaching qualification across the board, SA coaches must get the highest one available to them.
Continental federations and their affiliate associations must come to an agreement on what that might look like.
Khoza and along with his colleagues at the South African Football Association (Safa) can’t also just leave coaches to their own devices and need to create a fund to help pay for coaches’ education.
If it’s a national problem, then we need to find a solution for all coaches on the ground.
Only then will we see an improvement in our game.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za