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South African Football Association (Safa) President Danny Jordaan believes that Morocco’s impressive run at the 2022 FIFA World Cup should not be compared to the misfortunes of Bafana Bafana.
The Atlas Lions became the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals in 92 years with a 1-0 victory over Portugal on Saturday.
The North Africans are in the same group as South Africa for the 2023 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification in the Ivory Coast. When asked about the gap between the two African national teams, Jordaan told SABC Sport the Moroccan team makeup is a distinguishing factor that cannot be ignored.
"We must not equate a team that has 90% of their players coming from Europe and becoming citizens in order to be in the team. How's it possible that one Williams (Inaki) is playing for Ghana, and his brother, another Williams (Nico), is playing for Spain?
Our focus is, we must not be distracted by that fundamentally our position is we must produce world-class players that can compete with the best in the world," Jordaan argued.
Currently, Premier Soccer League (PSL) teams are permitted to field a maximum of five foreigners alongside six local players in the starting line-up of any match. At times, more foreign players in the team could be fielded when counting the players who are naturalized.
With questions having been asked in the past about the deteriorating standards of Bafana Bafana, Jordaan believes that the time has come for the PSL foreign quota policy to be reviewed.
And they would be looking at Saudi Arabia’s policy of seven local players, including a local goalkeeper as a possible option to follow.
Through the Safa and PSL Joint Liaison Committee, as well as the Safa National Executive Committee (NEC), Jordaan said they would be engaging to address this matter urgently, as only 96 players are eligible for Bafana selection from the weekly starting line-ups.
