Johannesburg - Safa president Danny Jordaan is excited by the launch of the Fifa Football for Schools Programme, insisting “football and education are inseparable”.
Over the years, there have been reports of poor development programmes for school's sport, particularly football, in undeveloped countries and cities.
But in 2018, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, together with his subordinates, started working on the Football for Schools Programme to improve the situation.
The launch of that programme was vastly delayed by the impact of the outbreak of Covid-19 in the last two years as it officially took off this year.
Fifa’s Director of Schools’ Programme Fatimata Sidibe has been hard at work, visiting countries like Costa Rica, where they also have an office.
But after being to Mauritania as well, Sidibe returned to South Africa on Wednesday at the Safa Technical Centre for her first Cosafa region visit.
Upon her arrival with her team, Sidibe was welcomed by Jordan and the representative of the 52 Local Football Associations (LFAs) as they got the three-day course underway.
The 52 LFAs were represented by the school teachers who double up as coaches as they are expected to give back to the learners what they’ve learnt.
“The approach is to develop players where skills and education are part of the same package,” Jordaan told the media as the programme began.
“In every country that I’ve been to, I see former players struggling, in poverty and despairing in hopelessness. But the new generation must be different.
“We must start there in school’s sport, offer better organisation, training and a comprehensive approach. Football and education are inseparable.”
The camp with the 52 LFAs is set to run until Friday, while Safa will also host some high profiled guests, such as Ivory Coast and Manchester City legend Yaya Toure, on that final day.
However, the work for Safa and the Fifa instructors will not end there. They’ll host 13 Cosafa regions, including Madagascar, in Gqeberha next week.
“To launch in South Africa is very symbolic for us,” Sidibe said. “South Africa is multicultural and multi diverse. We also remember it for the 2010 World Cup.
“We are very happy to go to Port Elizabeth given that it's difficult to launch in each country in just four years. So, we want to do capacity training there.
“We want to train master trainers, those who can also train others. There’ll be five representatives from each country, including the president.”
Jordaan has looked at the Football for Schools programme as a continuation of what they’ve been trying to impact and achieve with women’s football.
The Wafcon winning Banyana Banyana is made up of 90% graduates, while some former players have gone on to hold administrative positions at Safa.
“Banyana players are preparing for life after football,” Jordaan said. “Lydia Monyepao and Amanda Dlamini are former Banyana Banyana players.
“They are now working as the COO and commercial manager at Safa. And these are the players that we want to develop in the country,” he added.
IOL Sport