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Where are the South African Development National teams heading?

By Siya Pongco , in Football | Featured Football | News , at 2024-02-27 Tags:

After the South African women’s u17 national team (Bantwana) failed to qualify for the 2024 Fifa u17 Women’s World Cup, to be held in the Dominican Republic in November 2024, it became clear that we, as a country, have a long way to go if we want to compete on the global stage.

As someone who would like to see the investment in football development produce the desired results, I could not help but reflect on those national teams. Like most South African football fans, I ask myself whether the underwhelming results are due to a system that undermines the progress and success of these young boys and girls.

Why do we rely on temporary or stand-in coaches for national development teams?

Is there a lack of resources, which prevents us from having a full-time technical team dedicated to the national programme?

These questions apply to the national teams at the u15, u17, and u20 levels.

There is no intention to undermine the coaches currently serving those teams, but if those coaches are going to be regularly replaced, what impact does that have on those young players?

As it happens, the national junior teams do not have sponsorships, unlike the senior men’s and women’s South African national teams, Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana.

The governing body of the country’s football, the South African Football Association (Safa) confirmed this when they set the record straight on Bafana Bafana’s bonuses after an historic run during the Caf Africa Cup of Nations, held in Côte d’Ivoire, where they secured the bronze medal for the first time since the 2000 event, which was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria. There were outcries in the country regarding those and whether or not the players would receive them.

“We further highlight that the payments and bonuses, as agreed with the players, will be paid when the prize monies are received from the Confederations of African Football (Caf).” Safa said in a statement.

“The remaining funds will be utilised in the further development of football. As previously stated, our junior national teams are not sponsored and rely heavily on the senior national teams for funding to help with access to more preparation camps and competitive fixtures. The funds are not intended for members of the national executive committee of the Association or any Safa staff.”

Investment in Youth Football wins you the FIFA World Cup Trophies

There are many good examples that I could refer to, featuring countries that emphasised the development of football and how that has helped them to win international trophies – countries like Spain, France, and Brazil, but I will refer to the case of Germany in this article.

According to New Times, in the early 2000s after a poor performance of the national team at the European Championship in 2000, where they did not win a single game and scored only one goal, a decision was taken to pour almost $ 1 billion into Germany’s youth programs, with academies run by professional teams and training centres being overseen by professionals.

Germany did not win the World Cup in 2002, losing out to a great Brazilian, which included, among others, Kaka, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, who scored both goals in the final, to secure Brazil its fifth and most recent World Cup title, but the improvement was significant.

Further investments were made into the infrastructure of German football, with world-class stadiums being built and facilities for academies being built or upgraded. One of the consequences of those investments was Germany reaching the semi-finals in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which they hosted. They exited after extra time in the semi-finals, losing to the eventual champions, Italy.

After coming close several times, including another semi-final defeat in the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa, to the champions, Spain, the Germans’ efforts finally produced the desired result when they defeated Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the World Cup final in Brazil in 2014.

There was nothing lucky about that win, their fourth World Cup title. It was, rather, the consequence of a sustainable system, an investment for the future, that was put in place and given time to produce results.

According to the Bundesliga Report – “10 Years of Academies – Talent Pools of top-level German Football”, the Bundesliga, the top-flight of German football, made it mandatory for all professional teams to run a youth academy. “By the 2010-11 season, more than half of all Bundesliga players were part of the German academy system“, the report read.

In 2013, two German football clubs, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, contested the Uefa Champions League final at Wembley Stadium in England.

Many of the stars of Germany’s World Cup-winning team of 2014 were the products of the post-2000 system: Mario Götze, who scored the only winning goal in the final, Mats Hummels, Manuel Neuer, Per Mertesacker, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Mesut Ozil, all came through the Bundesliga academies.

Now, back to South Africa and other questions that come up: should Safa and the DStv Premier League follow suit?

What can be done to back the Gauteng Development League, boys and girls, as the league streams are a feeder to the national junior teams?

Siya Pongco
error: Sorry ol' chap, those shenanigans are not permissible.