Mamelodi Sundowns right back Anele Ngcongca says Bafana Bafana have themselves to blame for their failure to qualify for big tournaments.

Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations as well as the 2014 Fifa World Cup held in Brazil.

The defender believes the problem with Bafana Bafana lies with the association and urges SAFA to solve the problem from the ‘bottom’.

The 28-year-old believes that Bafana Bafana has a lot of work to do before they can even think of qualifying for the upcoming 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

‘We only have ourselves to blame for failing to qualify because we threw away games like Gambia at home [0-0] and the match away to Mauritania [1-3],’ Ngnongca said.

‘You don’t expect to go to the Nations Cup when you cannot win those kinds of games.

‘There is a lot of work that still needs to be done if World Cup qualification is to become a reality.

Ngcongca believes the problem with the national team lies with the South Africa Football Association and he has urged Safa to solve the problem behind their failure.

‘Instead of look at the bigger picture of going to the world cup, we need to look at the bottom where it all starts. We need to wake up as a nation,’ he added.

‘The football association needs to smell the coffee because we now have this disease of only wanting to host tournaments, which is not good.

He added: ‘We really need to work hard to bring back the glory days of South African football and emulate the team of 1996.

‘We can only do that by working hard and stop mumbling and thinking that going to the World Cup is going to be a walk in the park, yet we failed to even to the Nations Cup.’

Image: Sydney Mahlangu/ BackpagePix