{"id":10351,"date":"2026-01-08T01:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/10351\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T01:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T01:34:12","slug":"south-africa-disavows-hugo-broos-to-applaud-moroccos-afcon-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/10351\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Disavows Hugo Broos to Applaud Morocco\u2019s AFCON Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marrakech \u2013 South Africa\u2019s government has publicly contradicted its national team coach\u2019s harsh criticism of Morocco\u2019s AFCON 2025 hosting, with Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie delivering glowing praise for the tournament organization days after Hugo Broos slammed it as \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie dispatched a formal letter to Morocco\u2019s Education and Sports Minister, Mohamed Saad Berrada, on January 6, commending the \u201ctruly exceptional manner\u201d in which Morocco is delivering the continental championship.<\/p>\n

Morocco \u201cis currently hosting AFCON at a genuinely world-class standard,\u201d the minister said, hailing \u201cthe quality of the organisation, the professionalism of the tournament structures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you Morocco \ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde6 \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6\u26bd\ufe0f\ud83c\udfc6 pic.twitter.com\/8B2lCriShh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) January 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

This diplomatic endorsement sharply diverges from the harsh and recurrent criticism voiced by Broos throughout the tournament. The Belgian tactician has repeatedly targeted Morocco\u2019s organizational capabilities, describing the situation as \u201cchaos\u201d and lamenting that \u201cnobody is coming to watch the matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broos\u2019s criticism intensified after South Africa\u2019s group stage defeat to Egypt, when he revealed security concerns affecting his family. \u201cMy wife said she was afraid,\u201d Broos stated, detailing how \u201cpolice prevented certain people from entering the stadium, despite their tickets,\u201d while \u201ccrowds of people without tickets\u201d gained access.<\/p>\n

The coach drew unfavorable comparisons to previous tournaments, noting: \u201cThis is not comparable to the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon (2017) or Ivory Coast (2024). There, we really felt like we were in a tournament. When we took the bus to training, people waved flags and greeted us. Here, there is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKenzie\u2019s letter directly countered these assessments, detailing Morocco\u2019s infrastructure investments. \u201cThe stadiums themselves stand out as symbols of Morocco\u2019s ambition and capacity,\u201d the minister wrote, commending their \u201cdesign, renovation and modernisation\u201d and noting that \u201cthe quality of the pitches has been outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that hotel arrangements \u201chave been excellent, offering comfort, security, and an environment that allows elite athletes to prepare and perform at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister specifically lauded Morocco\u2019s logistical arrangements, stating that \u201ctransport logistics from the modern, well-equipped team buses to the efficiency of movement between training sites, stadiums and accommodation \u2013 have reflected meticulous planning and significant investment in infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broos\u2019s complaints extended beyond crowd management to training logistics. Before South Africa\u2019s Round of 16 clash with Cameroon, he criticized<\/a> the 45-minute journey to training facilities, stating: \u201cWe lose 1h30 in the bus instead of training.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach suggested potential interference, noting that both South Africa and Cameroon were assigned to train at Morocco\u2019s base facilities.<\/p>\n

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South Africa\u2019s tournament campaign concluded Sunday night when they bowed out<\/a> 2-1 to Cameroon in Rabat. Despite dominating possession with 66% and registering 18 attempts, Bafana Bafana fell short in the knockout stage. Evidence Makgopa\u2019s late strike proved insufficient as Cameroon\u2019s resolute defending secured their quarter-final berth.<\/p>\n

McKenzie positioned the tournament as preparation for Morocco\u2019s 2030 World Cup co-hosting duties. \u201cThis tournament is more than a continental championship; it is a powerful demonstration of Morocco\u2019s readiness to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup,\u201d he wrote, noting the \u201corganisational capacity shown during AFCON.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister extended \u201csincere congratulations\u201d to the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) and acknowledged \u201cthe countless professionals and volunteers whose hard work has made this tournament such a success.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded that \u201cMorocco is sending a clear message to the world that Africa can stage major global sporting events at the highest international level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Order threatens imperial memory<\/p>\n

This was not the first time Broos has ignited controversy, but the gravity of his remarks is especially jarring given that he is coaching a nation shaped by the scars of apartheid.<\/p>\n

The Belgian\u2019s racist remarks during December preparations laid bare an imperial mindset when he singled out defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi for arriving late to training camp.<\/p>\n

During a December 12 press conference, Broos declared<\/a>: \u201cEven if this boy is black, when he comes out of my office, he will be white.\u201d<\/p>\n

These comments \u2013 compounded by sexist remarks directed at player agent Basia Michaels over Mbokazi\u2019s club transfer \u2013 went beyond poor judgment. They revealed a profound discomfort with African agency, professionalism, and modernization.<\/p>\n

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Broos\u2019s nostalgic yearning for tournaments where \u201cpeople waved flags and greeted us\u201d is not benign sentimentality; it is a discursive slip that betrays a deeply embedded colonial imaginary. It evokes a vision of Africa as spectacle rather than subject \u2013 an affective landscape designed to affirm European centrality and white authority.<\/p>\n

In post-colonial terms, this is the classic West-and-the-Rest binary, in which Africa exists to be encountered, managed, and symbolically mastered, not to assert parity or modern competence.<\/p>\n

His hostility toward Morocco\u2019s meticulously organized AFCON reflects what scholars describe as the imperial gaze: a mode of perception conditioned to expect African dysfunction and unsettled when confronted with efficiency, order, and excellence.<\/p>\n

Morocco\u2019s world-class stadiums, logistics, and institutional professionalism disrupt the epistemology of inferiority upon which colonial authority once relied. The discomfort is not about organization; it is about the collapse of a hierarchy in which Europe commands and Africa complies.<\/p>\n

Broos\u2019s rhetoric signals an anxiety rooted in the loss of symbolic superiority. He appears unsettled by an Africa that no longer performs primitivism for Western consumption \u2013 an Africa that refuses to remain the mythologized terrain of savagery and disorder immortalized in \u201cHeart of Darkness,\u201d an 1899 novella by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad.<\/p>\n

What he longs for is not football chaos, but colonial legibility: the older Africa where European presence felt elevated, uncontested, and unquestioned.<\/p>\n

In this sense, his comments are less about sport than about power, less about AFCON than about decolonization. Morocco\u2019s modernity exposes the fragility of a worldview still tethered to imperial nostalgia \u2013 a worldview in which African progress is perceived not as success, but as provocation.<\/p>\n

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