Doctor Khumalo describes Bafana Bafana's locker room as being 'like a funeral' after AFCON exit and begs SAFA to give legends a role

Hugo Broos and Bafana Bafana saw their Africa Cup of Nations campaign end at the Round of 16 stage when Cameroon beat them 2-1.

In Ivory Coast, South Africa finished in third place, and elimination in the first stage of the knockout phase is considered a massive failure.

The players were themselves disappointed, and Doctor Khumalo, who was in Morocco and attended the game against Cameroon, has described the atmosphere in the dressing room.

“I was just standing there next to the door, and Ronwen [Williams], the captain, was coming from the interviews. He came up to me and gave me a hug. I said, ‘Unlucky boy,’ and all that," Khumalo told FARPost.

“He asked me, ‘Legend, are you not going to come into the dressing room?’ I was taken aback. I told him I wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed. He just said, ‘Please.’ So, I went in.”

“It was like a funeral. It was so quiet you could hear a needle drop. Those boys just looked at me. They didn’t even know I was around," the Kaizer Chiefs icon added.

“I hugged each and every one of them. I told them, 'This is how the game is.'

"You might have lost on the field, but you’re not losers. Well done, boys.”

Just like Cameroon, who were supported by retired icons - Rigobert Song, Patrick Mboma, and Roger Milla - Khumalo said Bafana need their own legends around the team.

“Something is not right. We don’t want a position of being a president or a CEO. We just want to be around the team," the 1996 AFCON winner said.

The Bafana legend also did not spare the national team head coach, as he called Broos out for comments he made before the Cameroon clash.

"You need to be mindful of what you are saying. Remember, this is Africa, we don’t reciprocate, nor do we receive everything said the same way,” Khumalo said in his interview with the African Five-a-Side podcast.

"There are certain things, there are certain cultures that you need to respect, but above all, you need to respect the game. You need to respect the Association, you need to respect the host country and your colleagues, protect your players, and protect the country that employed you. So, there are certain things that you can say to them, but with respect.

"You know, you don’t just say them just like that because I was wondering all of a sudden, the booing, where does that come from?

"But now, when you’re seeing this, now I understand because I saw the clip; you know about what he was saying about the host country," the retired star stated.

"But then, like I’m saying, it’s all about individuals understanding, you know, the culture and what type of people you’re dealing with, and yourself as an individual. You need to lead by example, because clearly it affected you, and poor players suffered because of those utterances."

Although much blame has been placed at the veteran coach's door, Broos blamed the level of the Premier Soccer League as a major contributing factor to Bafana's elimination.

“There are teams at the Cup of Nations with players who play in Europe. We mostly don’t have them, and that is a disadvantage for South Africa," the Belgian told reporters.

“Cameroon is a brand-new team, and when you see where those players are playing, there’s a guy, the striker Christian Kofane, who’s playing for Bayer Leverkusen. He’s 19 years old. 

“So this is the opportunity our players need to have because they have to be challenged more," the 73-year-old added.

 "I said from the beginning that the level of the PSL compared with the level we had in the last weeks is very different, and you can only close that gap when you have players who are also playing in very difficult competitions. 

“So let’s hope that players in the future have more opportunities to go to Europe and play in those very difficult competitions and face those challenges, because that should help this team enormously.

“It’s not because you play once against Argentina or once against Ghana that suddenly your level will go up. No, this is something else. But yeah, what can we do? We just hope they get the opportunity and make the step," Broos concluded.

The former Cameroon head coach has a little time to evaluate his squad, fix what went wrong in Morocco and prepare a strong team for the World Cup finals in June.