South Africa should naturally be concerned that the highly paid and World Cup-winning coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, is still to turn Bafana Bafana into a world-class side.

Some sceptics feel Parreira might be blind to a ploy by overseas players pretending to be playing for their country when, in fact, they are here to add to their match appearance call-ups. Caps become handy when a player considers moving from one club to the other in countries such as England.

But, all things considered, Parreira and his players are not the only ones to shoulder blame.

The South African Football Association and the Premier Soccer League have not helped to harmonise the situation in the past.

Only last week, the league chose to go ahead with its midweek fixtures, forcing Parreira to have a full squad at training for only two days.

And the player-versus-country saga played itself out last weekend when Orlando Pirates made a vain attempt to recall their players from the Bafana camp. This was counter-productive to Parreira's plans.

Much as some argue that generally other coaches do assemble their teams for lesser periods, clubs should, however, defer to Parreira's wishes.

After all, Parreira's mandate is to make sure that Bafana are world-beaters as we approach 2010.