Former Marumo Gallants head coach Sebastien Migne has raised his fist in emphasising the route that will help Bafana Bafana touch the levels reached by Morocco.
Migne was at the World Cup as Cameroon's assistant coach and has first-hand experience of working as a national team coach on the continent and at club level in Europe.
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He is a Frenchman whose national team walloped Bafana Bafana in March before going on to finish as runners-up at the World Cup.
"There are no short cuts in football and that is what I feel South Africa needs to know," Migne tells KickOff.com from France.
"Morocco invested a lot of money in the game at development level and built a lot of academies from some 10 years ago.
"There are no secrets in football besides the fact that you need to work from the bottom going up and have a long-term plan instead of always patching up.
"Yes, Morocco also benefits from having players who came up in European academies, but they are also blending with players coming from proper structures in Morocco.
"Morocco is more advanced than South Africa in terms of facilities plus they also more youth coaches who are trained than South Africa so you cannot even compare the quality of the coaches.
"Then the plus is that Morocco's national team players are in European leagues playing for clubs as Bayern Munich, PSG, Chelsea, West Ham, Fiorentina, Sevilla, Besiktas, and other clubs in Italy, France, England, and Belgium.
"For South Africa having a good league is not enough and for a player from Mamelodi Sundowns or Kaizer Chiefs playing against Marumo Gallants is not enough and cannot compare to players in Europe who get to play against Real Madrid or Liverpool.
"With all the respect that I have for the PSL because it is a league that I want to coach in again one day at a big club, reality is that you need players playing in top leagues in Europe instead of blaming coaches.
"Imagine Bafana Bafana with more than half the players at clubs in Europe and then add on players from Mamelodi and Kaizer or Orlando.
"That way you can compete at the highest level.
"Having a good league in South Africa is not enough and you cannot expect players from that league to compete with those from the top European leagues.
"South Africa needs more players competing at the highest before they start wishing to be at a stage like the World Cup where most players are in top European leagues.
"Check the squads of all the African countries that went to the World Cup and see where the majority of their players are playing," explains Migne.
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