In an effort to divorce the implementation of the plan from the vagaries of football politics, the Safa Development Agency was set up late last year with a separate identity and governance structure.
It will need about R300m a year to pull the plan off and, to engender confidence in funders, the money will be ring-fenced in a trust, with both business and Safa trustees on board and the finances managed by auditor Ernst & Young.
Football in South Africa receives only R2m-R3m a year from the national government, and while more money does come in from the provinces, it has never been applied in accordance with any co-ordinated plan.
When Germany struggled to make the upper stages of the tournament 10 years ago, it adopted a development plan that used grassroots academies and a controlled structure across training, coaching, refereeing, strategy and development from one central hub to ensure it became a major force in world football again. In contrast, Bafana Bafana has struggled to make it into the tournament, let alone the qualifying stages.
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| Safa Development Agency CEO Dr Robin Petersen |
The South African version of the plan — about 60,000 matches will need to be plugged into the system every weekend in South Africa — had already received strong support from Parliament’s portfolio committee on sport and the National Planning Commission (NPC), Safa said.
While major development and community funding initiatives are planned and there are moves to use the skills levy in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training, a large chunk of the funding will still need to come from the private sector.
"The portfolio committee said it’s fantastic and we have to do it," former Safa CEO and Safa Development Agency CEO Dr Robin Petersen said. "The (sports) minister endorsed it and (NPC member and chairman of Business Leadership South Africa) Bobby Godsell has presented it within both NPC and Business Leadership SA structures."
Godsell has already put his name to the plan as one of its patrons due to its good chances of success in youth development, according to a letter Safa received.
He is joined by Sandile Zungu from the Black Business Council.
Other high-profile South Africans who have agreed to act as patrons include Transnet’s Brian Molefe, Joel Netshitenzhe from Mistra, Vusi Khanyile from Thebe Investments and Nolitha Fakude from Sasol.
The technology for the system has been given to South Africa licence-free by the German Football Association, while also receiving support from the German Development Agency to help create coaching manuals, which will include life-skills training.
"This will give us an administrative spine and a base of administration down to club level. Everyone will have access to the site and everything will be co-ordinated through a centralised system and the talent-development pyramid will come out of that," Petersen said. "Two constraints to succeeding are funding and focus. If we miss this opportunity now, we can write off 2022," he said.
John O’Connor, MD of ITS Education and Training Institute, a private further education and training institution which has agreed to support Safa’s development programme, said the most crucial aspect of the initiative was "for the first time in South African sport we have a development agency to run alongside the sport and build development and administration structures to ensure the sport can grow".
Safa has faced negative press in recent weeks over shortfalls in its books and alleged abuse of the World Cup legacy fund, which is managed by a trust together with world governing body Fifa. Petersen on Wednesday denied there had been any "rampant culture of abuse or misuse of funds" and said Safa would be taking one newspaper to the press ombudsman over a recent report.
He said he could show how the negative report had cost Safa millions in development funding.
Source : bdlive.co.za
Tags : safa, 2014 world cup, Brazil, bafana,Safa Development Agency, CEO, Dr Robin Petersen
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