National pride.

I think a land's national pride is most visible during sporting events but in South Africa national pride is tricky when there are groups that dislike each other & believe that they should benefit more in South Africa than others. We look at our national football team in South Africa, Bafana Bafana. I often feel that the players in Bafana Bafana are given a raw deal, because they are expected to play for a land that isn't really for them. Many of the players in Bafana Bafana don't even speak the same language & many times don't even speak English as it's said to be the country's lingua franca & they come from indigent families so they'd feel a little disenfranchised in the heights of national team football because very little reminds them of home. Compare this to the Springboks (South Africa's national rugby team), who all come from similar backgrounds (i. e. most of the players have had a Model C education & have similar rugby philosophy with established rugby structures & franchises). The Springboks play so well together because they have a unity in purpose & a united collective mentality. It also helps that rugby is not that big a sport internationally so it's much easier to be rugby world champions (IRB) than football world champions (FIFA not ConIFA) but that's another story.

The Spain team that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup had a Catalan (FC Barcelona) spine & their team was forged around collective Spanish identity with Basques & Andalusians being represented. 

South African football is so mismanaged & disjointed because of the sheer diversity of views & philosophies on how football should be. We have players that played in Europe in South Africa that have their own opinions on football, we have people that only have ever known South African football, we have higher class individuals that believe in a less township style of football, we have "traditionalists" that believe kasi (township) football is the only style there is while the president of SAFA, Danny Jordaan, believes in international football & always speaks fondly of Brazil & Neymar. Could we make a single philosophy of all these groups of people? Probably not. What I've come to understand with team sport is that it's about a way of thought, the united mentality of a team. Successful teams usually have people that understand or like each other & people that have a common goal. In our diverse land of people that have extremely different mentalities & cultures, making a team with a united goal is more difficult than you think. Ofcourse, the goal or mission is to win but it boils down to how the victory is obtained. Which is why, I believe, Barcelona's La Masia academy has focused so much on how the players play as opposed to whether they win or not. Some might call this romantic & claim "winning is the only philosophy" but you just have to look at our national team to understand that people of different backgrounds have different views of winning. South Africa is a Joga Bonito country, as people of impoverished areas we enjoy beautiful football. Football in South Africa, is a sport of the poor black majority in who are - sadly - not allowed to express themselves. Unfortunately, the suits in power do not understand this & just want a kick-the-ball-into-the-net football. The boys need to express themselves without pressure of winning. If a team is to be made, it must be made right (with the right coaches & players in the right positions to avoid tribalism) & with a united mentality. Unfortunately, there is no way to do that in a four-fold divided multiracial, multicultural, multi-ethnic and multilingual land.