Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has hit out at the Premier Soccer League (PSL) over the DStv Premiership schedule that is set run as far into the festive as New Year's Eve, complicating preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Broos has already suffered a setback in preparations for the continental competition set to kick-off on 13 January January next year with Percy Tau pulling out the latest camp due to family reasons while Monnapule Saleng was withdrawn from the squad due to an illness.
Sundowns trio of Thapelo Morena, Bathusi Aubaas and Thapelo Maseko are also all out of action due to injuries.
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Addressing media at FNB Stadium on Thursday ahead of the friendly against Eswatini, Broos has expressed concern over the league's lengthy schedule that will run as far as 30 December, offering the Belgian coach will little time to prepare his team for Afcon and higher possibility of players being injured.
According to the DStv Premiership fixture, both Kaizer Chiefs, SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns among others will be in action on Saturday, 30 December, a day before New Year's Eve.
"The preparations are not running like we hoped it would be [because of injuries], but okay it can happen, and therefore answering your question, I'm very close, I'm very close to my team now, let's wait until next month but that will be with the players that are available," Broos said.
"Also, there are still PSL games and Champions League games, and the PSL is going on until the 31st of December. What I didn't like, what I didn't like but we asked not to do it but the PSL did it.
"30 and 31 December are PSL games (last Premiership match of calendar year is scheduled for 30 December), so let's hope that we don't have three or four people that can't come with us to Morocco [due to injuries].
"Players of Bafana Bafana, 80% of them are players that are playing in the top teams of South Africa. That means they will play many games.
"So, it should have been very good for those players that they give them six, seven days off and stop on the 23rd like I asked, immediately after last season.
"I didn't wait two days. I think the last game was finished and the next day we sent a letter to ask them 'please stop the PSL on the 23rd and we stated the reason why: so we can give the players six or seven days off. Did they read the letter? I don't know. I don't know. But they ignored it."
"I saw the programme (league fixtures) and the first thing I did was check when it stopped and I saw 30 and 31st I said okay, why was I expecting something? It doesn't interest them. It doesn't interest them. They just don't want to give you a good opportunity and a good environment to prepare the team.
Broos won the 2017 Afcon title with Cameroon and pointed out the stark difference between working with the Central Africa team and South Africa.
"In Cameroon, I went with the team manager to Equatorial Guinea to look for a hotel, to look for the pitch [we would use] and we said: 'please that is what we want, that is what we ask'. There was no problem," Broos added.
"Here it's totally different, there [in Cameroon] everything moves when it was the national team, here the national team has to move for the PSL, I'm very sorry. There is no collaboration."
Bafana's match against Eswatini will kick-off at 18:00.
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