By Jamie-Ryan Turkington
When Ghana beat Brazil to win the under-20 world cup last week in front of 68 000 fans on African soil, it was not so much a victory for Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu as a victory for soccer development in the country.
One would think that as the economic powerhouse of Africa, South Africa would be experiencing similar success at youth level. This is not the case, however, as the declining performance of the main beneficiary of development, Bafana Bafana, has shown over the years since the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) has divided its grass-roots constituency into 52 regions across the country, most of which are now lacking in capacity and functionality.
The Sunday Times reported recently that SAFA had lost the sponsorship of Metropolitan Life for their Metropolitan League aimed at youth development. The reasons are clear: the sponsors could no longer work with regions that could barely ensure the markings on the fields were made correctly.
Similarly, the School of Excellence, meant to be a flagship project for the development of the cream of the country’s talent, is on the verge of collapse due to mismanagement.
The plight of the institution is made clear when one notices the words new Safa technical director Serame Letsoaka used when he promised Kickoff.com that they will “revive” the School of Excellence.
And what of schools and universities? The UFS has consistently managed to churn out some of the country’s most talented Springboks over the years while failing to provide the soccer league with qualified referees for their finals. The winners do not even receive trophies.
There are some more hopeful signs nationally, though.
Newly-elected SAFA president, Kirsten Nemantandani, has stressed his commitment to development as part of future plans.
“Without developing players from the regional structures you cannot get talented players that you need in the national team. You need to invest at grass roots level in order to produce a pool of talented players,” he told BuaNews.
There will be no shortage of funds for this as well. SAFA stands to earn an estimated R650 million from ticket sales alone in 2010. Then there’s the sale of television rights for Bafana Bafana’s matches that will between R150 to R200 million. Add to that sponsorships, renewals and mobile rights and SAFA stands to earn well over R1 billion next year.
Also, as far as the continent is concerned, Danny Jordaan recently extolled the successes of a FIFA project called 'win in Africa with Africa' would equip the host continent with the ability to continue its football development and will include construction of 52 football pitches.
Forty-four of these are already complete and 15 have already been used for 2010 qualifier matches.
All of this could easily go to waste, however, if SAFA continues to go along the path of being unaccountable to its grassroots constituencies by appointing incompetent loyal politicians instead of people who know and love the game.
Time will tell and so will the national side’s performances. |