Abubakar Williams, Head Coach of the South African Under-20 soccer team, has accused many of the teams playing at the on-going 13th African Youth Championships in Burkina Faso for using averaged players.
He told the GNA Sports in interview at Bobo Dioulasso after his team's 1-3 loss to Gabon in their final group A match on Friday that it was unfortunate he could not use the tournament to assess the true capabilities of his team because they played against bigger and older players.
"The idea of youth tournaments are to develop players for the future but I'm sorry to say, there is no future for most of the players in our group because they are fully grown men at the prime of their careers", the disappointed coach said.
He said the diminutive physique of his boys made it very difficult for them to play their very best "since they were bullied by their senior brothers".
Coach Williams said from what he has seen defeats the whole idea for which such youth championships were set up.
"The objective at this level should not be on winning but identification of the shortfalls of the players to be worked upon to ensure that they are not repeated in the future", the coach said.
The South African coach said the team he brought to the championship was not a bad one as they were tactically better than most of the "men" at the tournament except they were powerless against the physically stronger opponents.
"As a developmental coach, my aim is to discover talents and nature them for the future and not necessarily to win a tournament", he told the GNA.
Coach Williams whose team was stuck at the bottom of group A after the preliminary matches said judging from what his boys showcased, "it gives me hope that there is future in the South African game".
He said plans are afoot to promote those players who were exceptional at the championship to the under-23 team, which is preparing for the next All Africa and the Olympic games qualifiers respectively.
The South Africans conceded seven goals and scored four at the end of the group A matches.
