Cape Town - South Africa Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan believes that Bafana Bafana should have qualified for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations next year.
“We had a speed-wobbling in the beginning of the competition [qualifiers] and we can debate on that, but we can sit back and say: ‘You know, we should have been there in the African Nations Cup,’” Jordaan said as quoted by KickOff.
The slow start to Bafana Bafana's qualification quest set the tone for the rest of the campaign.
Shakes Mashaba’s charges suffered a goalless draw in their opening match against Gambia at the Moses Mabhida Stadium. They then travelled to Nouakchott where a 3-1 loss to Mauritania began to put their qualification at risk despite having only played two games.
It was all too familiar after back-to-back draws against Cameroon put their AFCON hopes on hold.
Despite thumping Gambia 4-0 last weekend it was too little too late to salvage a last gasp qualification spot with a match against Mauritania still to be played in September.
Jordaan says that the team’s ability and quality should not be questioned because many people across Africa believes Bafana Bafana produce the best football.
“The quality of the team cannot be questioned, the quality of South African players cannot be questioned, and many people on the continent say the South African national team, Bafana Bafana, produce the best quality football on this continent. And I think that’s a great credit to us,” he added.