Mamelodi Sundowns may have cruised to the Castle Premiership title this season, but they were taught a footballing lesson by Egyptian side Al-Ahly in the CAF Champions League recently.
That should have provided a wake-up call to South Africans who believe that the Castle Premiership sets the benchmark in terms of African league competition. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
If you are a regular visitor to this column, you will had read my dismay at the fact that most South African teams seem to treat African club competitions with contempt, rather than embracing them as a chance to grow our football reputation across the continent.
But there is one club who have been tasked with achieving continental success as Sundowns chairman Patrice Motsepe looks for a high return on the millions he has ploughed into the club since he took over in May 2004.
The Brazilians failed at the second hurdle this time, however, as they fell to the wiles of Al Ahly — the Cairo club reaffirming their status as Africa’s best. There is no disgrace in defeat to the Red Devils, as they are known, but it was the manner of loss that proved so disappointing.
The 4-2 aggregate score line, which included a 2-2 draw in South Africa in the first leg, does not adequately portray the gulf in ability between the two sides. Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund put a brave face on the result after the second leg, but it was more bravado than anything else. His side were simply outclassed.
So what does it say about our football that our champion side, a team who barely broke a sweat as they cantered to a second successive domestic title — winning a record 12 matches in a row in the process — cannot compete with other top sides on the continent?
Set that fact against how Bafana Bafana teams made up of locally based Castle Premiership players have failed to beat Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana in the past 12 months, and it has to be worrying for Premier Soccer League and South African Football Association officials that the standard of our premier domestic competition is well below par.
In fact, one might argue that those players who have brought a little quality to the league have come from across our borders. Five of the nine Castle Premiership players of the year have been foreign (including two of the last three), while the past two seasons have seen foreigners top our goal-scoring charts, with Zambian Chris Katongo set to make it a hat-trick for the overseas contingent this year, despite leaving to play for Brondby in Denmark in early January!
Now, I have no problem with this foreign influence, but I do think it speaks volumes that players from poorer nations continually outshine locals who, in terms of development facilities in African football, come from a privileged background.
We will never move forward, however, unless we acknowledge these shortcomings and address them — with attitude a major contributing factor. While we continue to believe naively we are the best, we will, in fact, fall further behind.
We can start with regular entry into continental club competitions and the prohibition of cheap foreign imports that add nothing on the field of play but are happy to accept peanuts off it, which would give more opportunity to young local stars.
The future of our football really lies in the hands of the clubs, for it is they who nurture these bright young things. But unless they buy into the two concepts above, the slide will continue.
Don’t hold your breath.
Nick Said is editor: special projects for Kick Off magazine