If any player–no matter how talented–believes he is bigger than the club, then show him the door.
Bafana Bafana will lock horns with the Super Eagles of Nigeria this Saturday at FNB Stadium. The game is an Afcon group qualification match.
Thulani Serero: What happened to his lifelong ban? (photo, IOL)
Bafana has been hit hard by injuries, which makes South Africa vulnerable against star-studded Nigeria. Kamogelo Mokotjo and Dean Furman won’t play due to injuries. Coach Stuart Baxter will now call on Thulani Serero, who hasn’t played for a year.
Serero was benched In last year’s World Cup qualifiers against Burkina Faso and Cape Verde. That decision prompted the lad to snub Bafana’s call-ups in a must-win World Cup qualifying match against Senegal. (Tokelo Rantie did likewise because he wanted time to think about his international career when he was called to play.)
Refusing to help the struggling team when needed prompted SAFA to issue Serero a lifetime ban. But here we are a year later … and the club has knelt down and called for his services once again.
Here’s the reason why: Serero is arguably one of the best players South Africa has ever produced, a rare talent, indeed. But his recall has raised eyebrows. He never experienced the wrath of punishment because that ‘lifelong ban’ never really took effect.
While everyone deserves a second chance, I believe that SAFA mishandled this situation.
And that mishandling sends the wrong message to players. What’s to keep them from acting improperly and thinking they’ll get away with it?
To make matters works, the Serero situation is not a one-off. Steven Pienaar experienced a series of issues in his personal life, including serving a year-long driving ban for operating a motor vehicle while impaired.
South African footballers have always had SAFA eating out of their hands. That needs to stop. It needs to be replaced by a different approach. If any player, no matter how talented, believes he is bigger than the club, then he should be shown the door.
