‘There is no plan’: Pirates legend questions ‘easy’ Bafana call ups

Former Bafana Bafana midfielder Tyren Arendse says getting a Bafana Bafana call-up nowadays is very easy, something totally different from back in his playing days.

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Arendse blames the lack of structure and proper planning by the South African Football Association, which has seen a number of changes in squad selection.

The former Santos FC, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates player added that a lack of South African players playing in elite league in Europe makes it hard to compete with other African countries.

“The national team is a tricky situation and I just feel like in the last few years it has been too easy for people to get national team caps. There is no more value in getting that call up,” said Arendse.

“Yes, it’s a special moment for a player, but I think Safa has made it too easy for people get into the national team because there is no structure, there is no plan. It’s sad, and obviously the difficult thing again is that our players are not playing in top leagues,” said the former Bafana midfielder.

“Before we used to have players playing in England, players playing in Spain and Germany that we could call up. Nowadays we don’t have that.

“As players we have to challenge ourselves to get into those top leagues if we want to compete with the likes of Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria. Because we will never be able to compete with them if we don’t have many players playing in top leagues.

“Your Ghanaians and those other top African national teams have their players competing in better leagues. No disrespect to the Scandinavian leagues – your Sweden, Norway and others, but we can’t compete against the best if we don’t have players who are playing in the best leagues. Once Safa has a plan and a proper structure then we can probably see where we are going.”

Arendse added that new Bafana coach Hugo Broos’ plan to build a senior national team with young players can only work out if it is given a chance.