Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has slammed the Premier Soccer League for not taking the Africa Cup of Nations into account when planning this season’s fixtures.
South Africa will face Tunisia, Mali and Namibia in Group E when the international tournament kicks off in the Ivory Coast in January next year.
The current DStv Premiership is set to run until a mid-season break on December 30, leaving Bafana little time to prepare for their opening fixture with the competition set to start on January 13.
Broos asked for the PSL to consider an earlier finish, but has been left frustrated by their inability to respond.
The head coach said in the Sowetan: “The players for some of the big teams would have started playing at the beginning of August, this means they will have played many games.
Outspoken Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has taken another swipe at the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for not heeding his call to break the current campaign before Christmas. https://t.co/D713MZAiYp
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“It would have been very good for those players to get six to seven days off if the PSL was going to be stopped on the 23rd like I asked at the end of last season. I didn’t wait for two days – immediately after the end of last season we sent the letter asking them to stop the PSL on the 23rd.
“The reason is to give the players some time off for six to seven days. Did they read the letter? I don’t know. They ignored it. When the programme came out, the first thing I checked was when the league was going to stop.”
South Africa face Eswatini in an international friendly on Friday ahead of taking on AFCON hosts Ivory Coast on Tuesday.
Broos added: “When I saw the December 30 and 31 [for the last games before the break], I said OK but I was not expecting something different because it doesn’t interest them. They just don’t want to give you a good opportunity and a good environment to prepare the team.”
