Khanyiso Tshwaku | Soccer doesn’t deserve rugby comparison despite obvious faultlines

It will forever be easy to compare Bafana and the Springboks, but when one takes this murky path, the socio-economics and the different political wills that make the sports tick to the different beats, writes Khanyiso Tshwaku.

Our chief football reporter, Njabulo Ngidi, who is doing magnificent work out at the World Cup in North America, often makes this remark when South African national football teams do well on the continental and international circuit: “Our football teams continue to do well in spite of the South African Football Association’s (SAFA) flaws.”

It may sound like a tired cliché, but it rings true when, on the face of it, SAFA does not have a high-performance centre of its own, alongside centralised and provincialised scouting and selection structures, along with the school sport structure that underpins the success of rugby.

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It is the unending, irritating yet equally endearing “diamonds-in-the-rough” trope that is a bread-and-butter of football, yet also speaks to football’s glaring imperfections and inaccuracies in development.

Two of South Africa’s stars at the World Cup, Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Thapelo Maseko, are examples of this, with the two players coming from different development projects to find their way into the big time.

It is part of the magic of South African football where a diversity of backgrounds adds to charming backstories, and why national team success cuts across barriers.

SAFA’s developmental challenges are such that 16 of the 21 players who were part of the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations, which took place from 13 May to 2 June, came from Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

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