South Africa Football Association (SAFA) President, Danny Jordaan has thrown subliminal shot at Ghana over dual-nationals’ injection into the national team.
Five players switched nationalities to represent Ghana at international level in June. Brighton's Tariq Lamptey, Inaki Williams of Athletic Club and German-born trio Stephan Ambrosius, Ransford Konigsdorffer and Patric Pfeiffer have all agreed to play for Ghana.
Meanwhile, Southampton star Mohammed Salisu who declined several Ghana invite finally accepted to feature for the West African powerhouse.
Aside Patric Pfeiffer and Ransford Yeboah, other players who switched nationality to Ghana made the Black Stars squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
But according to Danny Jordaan, unlike Ghana and Morocco who rely on players from abroad in their national team, SAFA is determined to produce quality players locally that can compete at any level.
"We must not equate a team that has 90% of their players coming from Europe and becoming citizens in order to be in the team.
"How's it possible that one [Inaki] Williams is playing for Ghana, and his brother, another [Nico] Williams, is playing for Spain?
"Our focus is, we must not be distracted by that,” Jordan said as quoted by sabcsport.com.
The SAFA president added, "Fundamentally, our position is [that] we must produce world-class players that can compete with the best in the world.”
The Black Stars were eliminated after the first round of the tournament following a 2-0 defeat to Uruguay.
After defeating South Korea in their second group game, the Black Stars needed a draw or win against Uruguay to advance to the last 16 stage.
But the team failed to negotiate for points against their ‘enemies’ Uruguay.
Ghana made a strong start to the game, but fell apart after captain Andre Ayew missed a penalty in the 21st minute, a repeat of what happened in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The Black Stars will now shift attention to the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers set to begin in earnest.
The four-time African champions sit top of Group D with four points from the first two games of the qualifiers.