We need a reserve league, urgently!

The way our junior national team coaches struggle to get the players they need is a disgrace. It shows how ignorant this country is when it comes to development.

It’s stupid to expect any degree of success from the senior national team when the youth teams are ignored. The best football nations in the world owe their success to their development structures. Sadly for this country, football development is not handled correctly or taken seriously.

In all fairness, we can’t expect our junior national teams to succeed in competitions like the World Youth Championships and the Olympic Games without good players and adequate preparation. Qualifying will always be a struggle and South Africa will remain the weeping boys of world football. Until the custodians of our game sit together and plan a better way forward we can just forget about being a force to be reckoned with in the international arena.

It is disappointing that a country that claims to be a football nation doesn’t have a reserve league. Coaches Shakes Mashaba (Under-23) and Khabo Zondo (Under-20) would not be struggling so much to put teams together for their games if they had young players playing competitive football weekly. Amabinneplaas would have taken a stronger development team to their tournament in
Sudan.

PSL teams will always be reluctant to release their regular players for junior national team duty, especially when they have crucial matches. Ajax Cape Town and Orlando Pirates, for example, cannot do without in-form players like Thulani Serero and Andile Jali just to name a few.

There are many talented youngsters in PSL teams who are on the bench instead of playing competitively every week in the reserve league to stay sharp and focused. Unfortunately it is these fringe players who our youth coaches have to call up for national duty and it’s not an ideal situation.

Safa, the PSL and all other relevant stakeholders must sit down and find a way to have the reserve league up and running. It will definitely benefit everyone.