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What is the bigger picture for SA soccer?

The impasse between Bafana Bafana's technical staff and the Premier Soccer League on the Cosafa Castle Cup semifinal against Botswana's Zebras had just been sorted out as this column was being written yesterday.

The impasse between Bafana Bafana's technical staff and the Premier Soccer League on the Cosafa Castle Cup semifinal against Botswana's Zebras had just been sorted out as this column was being written yesterday.

But, be that as it may, is it not time that such shenanigans are addressed and gotten rid of permanently?

We have a lot on our plate to deal with than to spend valuable time arguing about what should have been done instead of accepting where we are and what we should do to rectify some of the mistakes that we may come across at any given time. Now and in future.

Sports Indaba doesn't really want to go back to reasons why it now seems like a Bafana Bafana versus Andrew Dipela or PSL issue while no one is looking at the role played by the clubs concerned in this whole sorry saga.

In any situation, once one has a them and us approach to differences it becomes very difficult to solve the problem.

A number of questions also sprung to mind as the days dragged by with no solution in sight and all sides needing to provide answers.

The first and most important question would be; what is the bigger picture here? National duty, patriotism or club commitments and those that pay the fiddler calling the tune?

The affected clubs insist, and rightly so, that the competition is not a Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) sanctioned tournament and also falls outside the world soccer controlling body's dates.

If that was the case we would not be twiddling our fingers trying to figure out what to do.

One may as well ask whether anyone needs a winner out of this situation as against a win/win one.

Something obviously went wrong somewhere and that should be easy to trace.

For those of us outside looking in, the answer to unlocking the stalemate needs political intervention - that is the hierachy of the two organisations to put their heads together and give direction one way or the other.

We should all be aware by now that leadership sometimes means taking unpopular decisions.

The silence from the leadership of both the PSL and the South African Football Association, while their respective employees are at each other's throats, is both deafening and disturbing to say the least.

As it is, the opposite sides are sticking to their guns because they must be seen to be doing their best for South African football, and if that means stepping on each other's toes in the process, so be it.

It is also intriguing that the Cosafa Cup has suddenly become such a necessary evil that it is bringing disrepute to our domestic scenario. A few years back we wouldn't have bothered, really! Of hoe se ek?

Methinks we lack foresight sometimes.

Does the present situation mean we don't have players who can replace the ones whose teams refuse to release?

Do we really mean to burn out players such as Itumeleng Khune, the current Kaizer Chiefs and national Under-23 number one.

That was but just one example. Readers of this column are football connoisseurs and need no further such examples from the selected squad announced by Carlos Alberto Parreira whom one suspects has suddenly made a number of South Africans realise the importance of the Cosafa Cup.

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