South African football fans can be very unforgiving. They expect a Bafana Bafana coach to be able to train the team up to qualify for the World Cup, not to mention win the Africa Cup of Nations.
The expectations are so pervasive that it seems like a lifetime ago when local sports people were not allowed to test their abilities against their international peers. Some, like former Manchester United goalkeeper Gary Bailey, had to invoke their British passports to have a chance of competing on soccer’s greatest stage.
But as South Africa grows progressively hopeful (some would even say confident) of winning the bid to host the 2010 World Cup Games, it may be a good time to reflect how far we have come.
‘Maybe it is a good thing to remind our youngsters that great players such as Jomo [Sono] and Ace [Pule Ntsoelengoe] never got to play in the World Cup,” says Bailey of the former Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs superstars.
Unlike them, Bailey was fortunate to have the talent and the British passport to enable him to represent England in the 1986 World Cup. It was an opportunity that almost never was for the British-born South African.
‘While I was at Wits University [the football club] we toured Zimbabwe [then known as Rhodesia]. We drew 1-1 and the game was at the Rufaro stadium in 1975.
‘I was on the bench that day and we had players like The Horse [Highlands Park’s Kenneth Mokgojoa], Masterpieces [Pretoria Callies’ Mecro Moripe], Bobby Viljoen [Highlands Park]. I did not get to play, that is why I was eligible to play for England,” says Bailey, who was still a teenager during that tour. The match against our northern neighbours was among the last that South Africa would play in the international arena before world soccer controlling body Fifa banned South Africa because of its apartheid policies.
Bailey says that despite representing one of the world’s most famous football nations, playing at home would have been sweeter.
‘I wish I could have played in front of the people I’d grown up with. It would have been lovely to be part of a World Cup team on home soil. But we did not have the opportunities.
‘It wasn’t only the in the case of soccer [that we were compelled to pursue opportunities abroad]. Keppler Wessels did the same with his cricket. In our day, if you had the talent you had to leave the country [to get a chance of competing on a bigger stage].”
Should we get the nod to host the 2010 World Cup, Bailey reckons that having built what will probably be one of our strongest teams would bring even more joy to South African soccer fans than the fact of it being hosted at home.
He believes we have the players who could make South Africa proud hosts, but that we need to develop our young players. ‘Countries like Cameroon, Senegal and Nigeria — their players are in the top leagues and play for top clubs. We need to get our players into teams like Inter Milan, AC Milan, Ajax, Manchester United and so on.”
Bailey says that Quinton Fortune, Steve Pienaar and Mbulelo Mabizela have already begun to take the game to new heights, something that augurs well for our 2010 prospects.