As another senior men’s continental tournament kicked off last Friday, it was concerning to note that SA is once again not represented.
The seventh edition of the African Nations Championship, commonly known as the Chan, is underway in Algeria with the final due to be played on February 4.
The tournament, restricted to locally based players, has always been treated like an irritant, particularly by countries’ club owners who simply refuse to release the players coaches require.
Ironically, the tournament was conceptualised at a Confederation of African Football (Caf) executive meeting in Johannesburg in September 2007, starting life two years later in the Ivory Coast with eight teams. It has now grown to an 18-team event that aims to provide home-grown players with the opportunity to represent their country at senior level, as well as promoting their home leagues on the international stage.
As the tournament falls outside the Fifa calendar, clubs are not obliged to release players. That makes clubs’ stance of minimal co-operation understandable given their engagement in a domestic campaign that requires the availability of full-strength squads.
But the Chan qualifiers and the tournament itself provide a great opportunity for promising younger players, especially those earmarked for the senior national team, to gain valuable international experience.
In the three weeks of the competition, these promising youngsters will probably learn more about themselves and the game at international level than they would normally do on their club training grounds.
It will surely be a win-win situation for both the players and their clubs. The players will grow by being exposed to foreign conditions and coping with the different playing styles of their international opponents. Their clubs in turn will benefit from getting back players who would be a lot better and wiser for the experience.
Meanwhile, SA Football Association (Safa) technical director Walter Steenbok has promised that the long-awaited meeting between Bafana coach Hugo Broos and his PSL counterparts will take place sometime during 2023, so when they do eventually meet, they should surely discuss the issue of availing their top young players to Chan and the national under-23 team that is seeking to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It is because national coaches have to scrape together makeshift teams, often including older players on the periphery of their clubs, that SA has only managed to qualify for one edition of the Chan tournament. Remarkably, the Amabinneplaas team, coached by Simon Ngomane at the 2009 tournament in Sudan, reached the quarterfinals where they were beaten 2-0 by Algeria.
In 2014, when SA took over as host from war-torn Libya, Gordon Igesund’s side — it included several experienced internationals like Moeneeb Josephs, Tsepo Masilela, Vuyo Mere, Tebogo Langerman and several others — failed to progress beyond the group stage, leading to then sports minister Fikile Mbalula famously labelling the team “a bunch of losers”.
This year’s tournament in Algeria — postponed from last July because of the Covid-19 pandemic — features only 17 teams. This is due to the late withdrawal of Morocco, winner of the past two editions, due to an ongoing political dispute with north African neighbour Algeria.
Relations between the two countries have hardly been cordial over the past two decades, particularly given Algeria’s support for the independence aspirations of the people of Western Sahara, a territory with a variety of natural resources, claimed by Morocco.
With Algeria having closed its airspace to Moroccan aircraft in August 2021, it’s hardly surprising that the country’s authorities refused to accede to the demands of the Moroccan Federation for their team to fly directly to their base in Constantine on a Royal Air Maroc plane.
It’s a pity that the Atlas Lions of Morocco, who have probably benefited the most from the Chan tournament in terms of developing talent, won’t be around to defend the title they won in 2018 and 2020.
The tournament has played a big role in the development of a few key players who would go on to represent the successful Morocco side that reached the semifinals at last year’s World Cup in Qatar.
It was on the back of the team’s success at the 2018 tournament, which they won on home soil, that defenders Nayef Aguerd, who moved to French side Dijon and is now with West Ham, Jawad El Yamiq, who was signed by Italian side Genoa and moved to Spain two years ago, and Badr Banoun, who now plays for Qatar SC, secured moves to clubs outside the country. Wydad Casablanca midfielder Yahya Jibrane, who was also in Walid Regragui’s World Cup squad, also graduated from that successful 2018 Chan squad.
Others have done well too. Mali’s Yves Bissouma, now with Tottenham Hotspur, was signed as a promising 20-year-old by French side Lille after shining at the 2016 Chan tournament.
The tournament has proved to be a rich hunting ground for heads of recruitment, player agents and scouts from around the world. At the same time, it provides an invaluable opportunity for African players to put themselves in the shop window to enable them to take the next step in their careers.
It’s time SA’s football authorities start working together to develop a clear plan to use the Chan tournament to develop our young talent as a stepping stone towards bigger things.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.