I spent most of last week asking myself a myriad of questions and finding no answers as to why there were only two players selected to the national Under-23 squad from the 16 First Division clubs that are forced to start all their League matches with at least five Under-23 players every week.
The country’s national Under-23 team played Sudan on Saturday at Dobsonville Stadium in the return leg of the Congo-Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games qualifiers and as we now all know failed to overturn a 0-2 deficit from the first leg.
Owen da Gama’s group of players could only manage a single goal and were booted out 2-1 by the Sudanese.
Going through the list of players that were called up into that squad only two names – Golden Arrows goalkeeper Ricardo Goss and Santos striker Suhayl Allie – were from the country’s second-tier league which applies that Under-23 rule.
Even for the first leg away in El Obeid only two players from the NFD were called up and just like in the first leg, the squad was dominated by players who were not playing regular football at the PSL clubs they are attached to.
Only Maritzburg United defender Kwanda Mngonyama has genuinely played regular PSL football in that squad this season while Thapelo Morena has also been getting some decent game-time of late.
If only two NFD players out of the 80 Under-23 players that start matches every week are worthy of being noticed by the national selectors in their age group, then what is the point of having this anti-football rule which is considered adverse by most, if not all, clubs in the First Division.
Mind you, there are actually about 170 Under-23 players across all the NFD clubs, which for me essentially means the bulk of players feeding the national team at that age group must come from that League.
But it doesn’t!
After all, when this unfriendly ruling was introduced in 2009 we were told that it was meant to benefit the national Under-23 squad and also help attract sponsors for the League due to its youthful touch.
Six years later the First Division still has no sponsor and it is clearly evident that this Under-23 rule is serving little, if any, purpose to the national Under-23 squad if players like Baroka captain Gift Motupa (left) – an exceptional talent aged just 20 – cannot even be considered for the national team by Da Gama.
Take time to watch these Thanda Royal Zulu regulars Sonke Ntuli (18), Evander Spandiel (19), Menzi Hlophe (20), Michael Gumede (20) and Innocent Maela (22) then you will know why First Division clubs are fuming about this age-limit rule.
Though Da Gama claims he sent out call-up letters to 52 players and still couldn’t get even a quarter of those players, it is interesting to note that the majority of First Division clubs say none of their Under-23 players were ever considered.
For me, it is just a waste of time to be imposing this draconian rule that is of no benefit to anyone as all it does is just weaken NFD clubs, contributes to the decline of standards in that League and deprives deserving players of competing in that League.
Actually, the very same clubs that are forced to start with those five Under-23s dump those players upon promotion to the PSL where there is no such detrimental rule.
Just to show that First Division clubs are actually against this rule, I have noted several cases of clubs making first-half substitutions just so that they take out those Under-23s and replace them with players that will win them matches.
According to my understanding, the First Division can never be a development league as clubs are chasing promotion and run as business entities.
If you genuinely feel you want to have a proper feeder system, why not set up an Under-21 League and make it compulsory for every PSL and NFD team to play in that League, with those games always played as the main curtain-raisers to every PSL match instead of having musicians making noise prior to matches.
Fans pay to watch football after all.
For me, that is the best way to develop a strong football culture as fans that arrive early at stadiums will also be afforded the chance of familiarising themselves with the future stars of their respective clubs.
For me, the moment a footballer reaches 19 years he is automatically a senior player that must be competing with other adults without being handed the kind of favours that this Under-23 rule gives to all these 20, 21 and 22-year-olds.
If all these Under-23 players are genuinely good enough then they should be able to rise above the rest and show that they can compete with the rest of their teammates who are aged 25, 28, 33 or whatever age.
This Under-23 rule is the reason why players aged 25 are still being referred to as youngsters in this country when only a teenager is supposed to be referred to as a youngster in the football vocabulary.
Surely if there is no rationale in forcing First Division clubs to start with five Under-23 players, then just drop the bloody rule as it is stifling the progress of football in the country and disadvantaging NFD clubs.
If players are being called up based on merit then Under-23 players who are regulars in the First Division should be the ones dominating the squad instead of players with contracts at PSL clubs but who rarely struggle to even sit on the bench on matchday let alone play.
The 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers start next month and at this rate chances are that South Africa will again not be represented in Rio next year.
