MOGAMAD ALLIE: New Safa-Fifa initiative promises to develop SA’s natural talent

Last Wednesday’s launch by the SA Football Association (Safa) of an under-15 interprovincial tournament bodes well for the long-overdue development of junior football in this country.      

The tournament, which will feature representative teams from all nine provinces playing against yet-to-be named academy sides, is meant to provide the country’s best young footballers with the opportunity to showcase their talent.

The project, a collaboration between Safa and Fifa’s Talent Development Scheme (TDS), is part of a commitment by football’s world governing body to provide tailor-made assistance to member associations to meet their specific needs and to help them harness their talent. The initiative forms part of an effort by Fifa to close the gap between the world’s top footballing nations and the minnows who make up the numbers.

Upon introducing the TDS in February 2022, Fifa president Gianni Infantino highlighted the aim of the scheme to give talent everywhere in the world a chance of blossoming.

The rationale of the TDS is to increase global competitiveness of football by giving lower-ranked countries a leg up through identifying areas that have produced success for the top nations as well as pinpointing shortcomings in the ecosystems of those lagging behind.

The Fifa team, working under the direction of former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, looked at six areas — management and resources, national teams, talent identification, domestic competitions, education and how member associations set up academies — to compare how they measure against what successful countries are doing.

The Frenchman, who was appointed chief of global football development in November 2019 by Fifa, is responsible for overseeing and driving the growth and development of the sport for both men and women around the world.

Not surprisingly, one of the areas in which SA was found wanting was in talent identification and development, hence the move to scout, develop and select provincial under-15 teams which will provide the pool of talent for the next cohort of under-17 players that will hopefully qualify for their Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup events in 2025.

The Safa-run tournament, which will also be extended to girls in the future, will be held in Johannesburg in July 2023 when the nine provincial teams will play against invited academies in a one-day event that has been sponsored by Fifa to the tune of $50,000 (R891,000). The top players will be rewarded with selection to a national under-15 team that will compete in a four-team tournament with neighbours Botswana, Zambia and Denmark. 

Playing against other nations is also part of the Fifa plan to provide more opportunities to young players to train and play with and against top players in their age group.

Speaking at the launch of the tournament, Safa technical director Walter Steenbok said the aim is to bring the country’s young talent into one central area and from there start preparing the under-17 class of 2025.

Encouragingly, Steenbok, himself a former head scout for Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, will put together a team to assist the provinces in the time leading up to the tournament to help them identify the best players in their provinces and to prepare their squads ahead of the tournament.

The idea to drill down to grassroots development and provide young players an opportunity to represent their provinces and ultimately their country is a good one. It is, however, imperative to note that to turn an idea into success requires good implementation and management.

Focusing on youth development through a carefully planned and structured scientific programme is a basic requirement for any nation to produce top footballers. It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.

Steenbok will have the benefit of having Fifa TDS coach Dean Selvey, previously in charge of the under-21 side at former English League Two side (fourth-tier) Barnet, working alongside him on the project. The Englishman has been assigned to SA and will spend the next six months working with Safa to get the project off the ground.

While it’s all good to provide opportunities for talented young footballers to grow, having a pool of sufficiently qualified coaches with the requisite qualifications and experience of junior football is perhaps even more important.

Without a good, well-structured and technically sound grassroots development programme it will be impossible to have a good elite environment to develop top players.

The new Safa-Fifa initiative has great promise to harness the undoubted natural footballing talent that abounds in SA. Hopefully, assisted by the guiding hand of Fifa, the new tournament can be the launchpad for an effective and successful development programme that SA football so desperately needs.