The same can be said of winning and losing in the sporting arena. Associations with teams in perpetual slumps, like the South African Football Association (Safa), need to stop thinking like losers if they want to progress. Losers in football don't prioritise grassroots development, the education of players or proper planning. Winners constantly plant seeds for the next generation to harvest as they understand yesterday's decisions are tomorrow's results.
Safa does not understand this logic, which is why it constantly turns a blind eye to the real issues, in favour of glitz and glamour. This is proven by Safa's decision to throw its weight behind building and renovating stadiums to the tune of R20bn while it fails to convince the government to develop sporting infrastructure in disadvantaged communities.
Another problem is soccer analysts who fail to tackle the real issues or challenge Safa's priorities.
Why have Bafana Bafana underperformed for the past 13 years?
Simply because Safa's leadership has had a loser's mentality and, consequently, our players are just not good enough. Safa needs to sort out the following:
Leadership: the late Solomon "Stix" Morewa was Safa's only president with a winning mentality. During his reign, from 1994 to 1997, Bafana Bafana won the African Cup of Nations in 1996 and qualified for the 1998 World Cup. It was also under Morewa's management that Bafana had their highest Fifa ranking. Morewa believed in local coaches irrespective of skin colour, which paved the way for Clive Barker to be at the helm of Bafana Bafana for a record three years.
Infrastructure and development: the government spent R33bn on hosting the World Cup, yet less than 6% of township schools have grass soccer pitches. Where exactly do we expect players to be developed if there are no sporting facilities they can access? The Department of Sports and Recreation and Safa must ensure that primary and secondary school leagues are fully operational and have the infrastructure necessary to develop players.
Malnutrition: Safa claims to have 1,8-million registered players, the bulk of whom are from disadvantaged communities. The Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit and the World Bank released a study that found black children aged one to five in SA are adversely affected by malnutrition.
Malnutrition affects a child's intellectual ability, which leads to a slump in health and productivity later in life. Many of our soccer players are too small and not capable of delivering the brilliance needed to produce a winning performance. Safa should put pressure on the government to implement feeding schemes in all primary and secondary schools.
Poor planning: after Bafana failed to score a single goal in the African Cup of Nations 2006, Safa decided to spend R100m on Brazilian coaches. They thought throwing money at citizens of the greatest soccer-playing nation would solve our problems but they forgot that everything that glisters is not gold. If Safa conducted enough research, it would have been empowered with the knowledge that the World Cup has never been won by a team coached by a foreigner.
Education neglect: if Safa wishes to be a step ahead of the other soccer nations, it should borrow the model used in the National Basketball Association in the US.
A university league can be set up, from where players are drafted into the Premier Soccer League (PSL). At the end of each season, all PSL teams will be obliged to draft five players into their teams.
This system encourages soccer players to take their studies seriously. Our players are known for making questionable decisions on and off the pitch, and further education can help address this.
*Ditshego is a public relations strategist and policy developer.