Former South Africa Under-23 captain Lovers Mohlala reveals who should be blamed for the team's recent failures after failing to qualify for the Afcon.
David Notoane's side will also not compete at the Paris Olympics after being held to a goalless draw in Congo after a 1-1 first-leg draw.
READ | SA U23 battle back against Congo
"Football in Germany starts with four and five-year-old's, whereas football in South Africa starts at 12 or 13 years," Mohlala tells KickOff.
"The problem is we don't want to go back to the primary schools and let kids play football.
"The Department of Education want teachers to be paid twice. Sadtu doesn't want anybody in their space.
"They want teachers to be paid for teaching football when they don't know anything about coaching.
"Yes, we were taught football by teachers who played football, but at this moment the current teachers never played football.
"Politics are killing football, now for us to get this right, Sadtu must give the Department Of Sports a chance to run the football.
"Sadtu falls under the Department of Education, not of Sports. Let them run education, not sports.
"On Wednesdays these teachers, ministers and high-profile people their kids are playing sports.
"In the townships, kids are not playing sports. As long as this government continues to build schools that don't have soccer facilities, don't expect anything to improve in our national teams.
"The problem is not with SAFA only, the problem is with the Department Of Education. This is where we are going wrong.
"I hate talking about only SAFA where at the end of the day, people are not putting money into SAFA.
"No one invests in SAFA. We can say Danny Jordaan this and that but no one invests in SAFA, but they do invest in rugby and cricket.
"Yes, people may hate Danny Jordaan, but it's not that they are destroying him, they are also destroying the game.
"We all have a role to play as individuals.
"SAFA, for now, I will give them a break.
"The PSL also, why are we still having 16 teams when the population has grown so much. We should be having 24 clubs in the PSL.
"When you have more people playing football you will have more quality to select from."
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