In his latest column for iafrica.com, former Bafana Bafana coach Ted Dumitru calls on PSL coaches to reinstate the principle of playing the game according to the strengths of South African players.

In one of the letters recently published in the print media, an interesting point was made about the current state of our professional football. It read: "Those local PSL matches do not even match the standards of international youth competitions such as the FIFA U-17 World Championships."

One would find it difficult to argue about that simply because in the PSL (one of the richest league in the world) football remains scrappy, erratic and inconsistent enough to keep most of the fans away from the stadiums.

Ironically, as we are all aware, such uninspiring football is still labelled by technically illiterate commentators and 'studio experts' as 'fantastic', 'quality' or 'exciting' show. Are you kidding us?

Why it is that the game and its passionate followers in this country continually endure such misery when growing financial resources, exquisite talent and many years of opportunities to learn how to progress and succeed were on hand? Undoubtedly, this question is in the mind of every concerned South African football fan.

But before looking for solutions...

The only objective answer can be found when scrutinizing the facts that cause South African football to be so badly dented. Let's look at some key technical shortcomings before ensuring viable solutions.

At the top of the list of inadequacies is the vital issue of still not having developed a football concept that fully reflects the strengths of South African players. Contrary to the fact that the best football nations have demonstrated that their strong identity in the game is their main source of success, South African football still refuses to accept it. Is it the case that we simply do not know what we do not know? How else can the fact be explained that the SABC and most of the print media continue to subscribe to a primitive game mentality by promoting, indiscriminately, low-grade matches from the English Leagues that only reflect and teach sheer mediocrity? In one recent low-quality PSL match there were 37 fouls recorded by the end of the game, and there was no concern. Assumedly, it is because the model of that scrappy, fast and furious lower English league is accepted and even glorified by an ignorant and partisan media.

Invaluable values...

The fact that players in South Africa and in the region are of medium-small frame and do not posses considerable strength is not recognized. Nature compensates for that and rewarded these players with exquisite agility, quickness, balance, coordination, creativity, anticipation, natural endurance and other qualities which are there and still to be explored and developed. The genuine football scientists of this world would confirm that the South African type of player can be extremely effective but not in a game concept based on physical dominance, predictability and restricted or self-limited skill.

Similarly, FC Barcelona - the multi-champion club of Europe and the World - have proved how much can be gained if such specificity is respected. South African football has become a form of Kick-Ball-or-Opponent anomaly. This is not our football, many fans would say.

On page two, Ted offers points out changes that need to be made in order to restore the South African soccer...