2022 World Cup: Mbulelo Mabizela Dismisses the PSL as the Best League in Africa After Failed WC Qualification

• Mbulelo 'OJ' Mabizela has dismissed the long-held notion that the Premier Soccer League is the best on the African continent
• This comes as not a single player from the league - local or foreigner - will play at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar
• The former Bafana Bafana defender and captain aimed fire at all the stakeholders he feels are letting local football down

Former Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates captain, Mbulelo "Old John" Mabizela, believes it is an exaggeration that DStv Premiership is regarded as the biggest league in Africa.

Mabizela wondered how this could be if its players - local and foreign - are not in any of the African squads that will do battle at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Bafana, for instance, was not able to secure a place in major football competitions including the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) and the World Cup in recent years.

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Speaking to Isolezwe, Mabizela said:

"The fact that the PSL is ranked among the big leagues in Africa is something we should stop talking about now because it is clear that the players we have in this league are not at the right level. Here I am not talking about foreign players as there was talk about Richard Ofori (from Ghana) who was supposed to represent PSL at the World Cup.

"I am talking about the players here in South Africa from whom the players of the national team are selected. Bafana failed to secure a place in the World Cup. Even the players who play in our PSL league are now finding it difficult to play in the big European leagues like they used to do before, which is worrying."

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This team then threw a whip at the governing body of football in the country, the South African Football Association (SAFA), for not doing enough to develop the structures that develop young players in the country.

He criticised the South African Football Association by saying:

"The problem we are currently facing is that the development of structures that develop young players is far behind here in South Africa compared to other countries. SAFA must intervene more, to work on developing football structures that develop young players. It is up to them to bring football back to South Africa so that this country will be able to produce other players of the calibre of Lucas Radebe, Mbulelo Mabizela and Mark Fish, and even better than them."

"In some countries, you often find a 19-year-old player, sometimes even 17, playing in the main team. That is very rare in our country. That is because the players in these countries are trained in the right way while they are growing up."