THE South African Football Association must convene an urgent indaba with all stakeholders in the game to discuss the way forward for Bafana Bafana.

THE South African Football Association must convene an urgent indaba with all stakeholders in the game to discuss the way forward for Bafana Bafana.

This is the view of various experts after Bafana embarrassed themselves and the country by becoming the first World Cup hosts to be eliminated in the first round. Former Bafana midfielder John Moeti said South Africans must stop celebrating mediocrity.

"Let me start by congratulating Bafana Bafana on a great win over France. We would have qualified for the knockout stages if we played the way we played against France in the previous group matches against Mexico and Uruguay," said Moeti, an analyst for SABC Sport during the World Cup.

"You could see the killer instinct was not there.

"We failed to improve in this World Cup because we achieved the same points that we got in our last appearance in the World Cup, in Korea and Japan in 2002, where we also failed to advance to the next round."

Edward Motale, another former Bafana player, added: "It was really disappointing not to go to the next round as hosts.

"Safa should start to believe in local coaches who I think will take us further. The same should be done by other federations in Africa."

Ex-Bafana midfielder Alex Bapela said: "We played well against France but that was not good enough. We should go back to the drawing board and start from scratch because Carlos Alberto Parreira is leaving. Our players suffered from stage fright.

"Safa must come up with a solution for Bafana."