Bright future for SA football

The Safa Under-13 and Under-15 Boys and Girls Leagues will kick off in all the association's 311 Local Football Associations (LFA) in May this year.

The programme was made possible through funding provided by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust.

The move marks the beginning of the implementation of a critical component of the Safa Technical Master Plan - the building of a rich and robust talent identification and development pipeline.

Safa President Kirsten Nematandani described the unveiling of the programme as historic in the long term successes of the national teams.

"This is the first phase in the implementation of our Technical Master Plan, which is intended to enable us to reach our goal in the next decade of being consistently in the Top 3 in Africa and Top 20 in the world.

"A decade is both a long time and a very short time as well. The FIFA World Cup tournament, to be held in Qatar in 2022, is just under 10 years away. If our plan is to find success, it must be seen there, if not before," said Nematandani.

Chairperson of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust, Dr Danny Jordaan, said this was the project in which the trust invested the most funds during the first round of allocations.

"The Board of Trustees was excited to note that Safa prioritised the U-13 and U-15 leagues for girls and boys as a key element of the Technical Master Plan that was unveiled a few weeks ago.

"The board was unanimous in their view that this focus will provide a solid foundation for meaningful development and transformation of the game. Thus, the lion share of the distribution of funds in this first allocation was directed to this initiative.

"The Board of Trustees wanted to see a programme that will make an impact on the development of football and that will see the national teams improve their standing on the continent and in the world in the next 10 years.

"This is the start of a tough but exciting journey for South African football. But the trust will be there to support Safa every step of the way," said Jordaan.

Several coordinators, who are currently being trained, will be responsible for the roll out of the programme in their respective LFAs.

Coaches and talent scouts will select LFA teams which will participate in regional competitions, followed by provincial competitions in September later this year.

Provincial U-13 and U-15 teams will participate in national competitions in December 2013.

In the process, 1000 boys and 1000 girls who show potential will be identified and put through high performance tests conducted by high performance universities.