Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has expressed concern over the widening gap between Mamelodi Sundowns and Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.
Broos named his final 23-man Bafana Bafana squad for upcoming AFCON fixtures against Liberia to e played later this month. A big talking point has been the lack of players from Chiefs and Pirates.
In Innocent Maela, Nkosinathi Sibisi and Monnapule Saleng, the Buccaneers saw three of their players get the nod, while not a single Chiefs player made it to the final squad.
.@BafanaBafana squad to face Liberia???? in their back-to-back @CAF_Online AFCON qualifiers ???? will play against Liberia ???? on 24 March 2023 at Orlando Stadium at 6pm and again on 28 March 2023 in Liberia @SABC_Sport @LeCoqSportif_SA pic.twitter.com/sCmzwdVf2q
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) March 16, 2023
Broos, who chose eight from Sundowns, said although he was pleased with his picks, the gap between the teams over the last few years is not good for South African football.
"It [Sundowns' dominance] is not working against me at all," Broos told journalists.
"But I said already that when you have so many players of the same team. It means you can't find the quality somewhere else and that's not good for South African football.
"It's not good that teams like Chiefs and Pirates, who were the top teams here, that we don't have players from them. It's not good.
"Chiefs is struggling, doing a little bit better now but they are still struggling, still not Chiefs and for Pirates, same thing, they get good results and then a week later it's not good, so they are also not stable.
Sundowns' recent win over Royal AM mathematically eliminated both Chiefs and Pirates from the title race with seven games left to play.
"I was looking a bit into the last championships that Sundowns won; before it was three points difference, then two points difference now, today it's 20," added Broos.
"This is not good and let's hope Chiefs and Pirates, as soon as possible, get back to being top teams and challenge alongside Sundowns for the championship, that will increase the quality of football.
"They played with their second team and they played a draw against Stellenbosch and they could [even] win that game, with a second team, It's not good."
Asked where he believed the Soweto giants are lacking, Broos responded: "I don't know, but do you think it is normal that before Chiefs and Pirates were nearly champions but now are 20 points behind? there is something wrong, I don't know what."
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