Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has admitted that it was a “stupid thing” to play midfielder Teboho Mokoena while suspended.
The Belgian was speaking after naming the squad to do duty for South Africa in the two remaining matches of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
Bafana Bafana were docked three points for featuring Mokoena in the 2-0 win over Lesotho back in March, and since they forfeited the match with a 3-0 scoreline in favour of the Mountain Kingdom, Bafana Bafana are now level on 14 points with log leaders Benin, who have a better goal difference.
“People have to stop looking for who’s responsible for that; we all know that we made a mistake, but first, between the first yellow card of Teboho and the match of Lesotho, there were 16 months—16 months,” reiterated Broos.
“In the meantime during that period, we played AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations), we played qualifiers for a new AFCON, and we played World Cup qualifiers, so it should not have happened, but it’s understandable,” he said.
“Who is responsible? And I see the Minister of Sport (Gayton McKenzie) already wants to investigate who’s responsible. Well, it’s clear; I’m responsible. I’m the coach.
“I have to know that this guy (Mokoena) has (two) yellow cards. My technical staff is responsible because they didn’t tell me, ‘Hey, Teboho has (two) yellow cards.’ The team manager (Vincent Tseka) is responsible, but he didn’t have the follow-up.
“The player is responsible because he didn’t say anything to us, and the administration of SAFA is responsible, so now everybody is responsible, so stop with it.”
The 74-year-old added that Bafana Bafana will fight to the end to ensure qualification despite the setback.
“Let’s just focus on the two games that are coming up and support us like you did already the months before, and we will do everything for 100% to win those two games.
“For me, it’s an extra motivation, and I will try to put it in my players’ heads also that in those two games they’ve never seen a team of South Africa that they will see now in those two games. We will fight like lions.”
Bafana Bafana plays Zimbabwe on 10 October, before facing Rwanda four days later.
