Johannesburg - Several Safa members have realised the importance of upskilling as an integral part of the development of South African football's governing body.
A few days ago, Safa president Danny Jordaan and other administration members including the newly-appointed chief executive Lydia Monyepao were at parliament to inform about developments around the 2027 Women’s World Cup bid.
The Safa delegation also presented the blueprint for their key strategies to take football in SA forward. Several officials were abroad at the time, attending workshops and training courses around the world.
Safa officials Sheryl Botes and Walter Steenbok were attending a Fifa Knowledge Exchange Workshop in Algeria. The main objective there was to help raise the standards of men's and women’s football based on Fifa’s long-term commitment to global talent development.
Botes is the coach at the Safa Girls Soccer Academy, based at the High Performance Centre, in Pretoria. She is also the coach of the SA Under- 20 team (Basetsana).
Steenbok is the Safa technical director, and he was joined by eight other officials who serve in the capacity in African countries.
This week Steenbok will be in Brazil for Fifa's Technical Leadership Diploma programme.
This will be the second edition of the Fifa Diploma in Club Management. The objective is to promote the professionalisation of global football to enable a larger number of clubs from every region of the world to compete at the highest level off the pitch.
“I am honoured to have been selected as one of the participants of this life-changing opportunity,” Steenbok told www.safa.net
"I will be learning so much from this and I want to bring it back to South African Football. I will be presenting during this first leg on talent identification and development, which have been my main areas of focus over the years of talent scouting.
“We as technical directors are the ‘architects’ and shape the future of football in our countries.
"We are grateful to our associations and Fifa as the mother body for investing in our education and making sure that we have a network from around the world that can ensure we build the beautiful game as one unit.”
Safa Chief Medical Officer Thulani Ngwenya will also be on the move soon. He has been appointed by Fifa as a Doping Control Officer for the U20 World Cup in Argentina, starting on Saturday.
He is the only Doping Control Officer Fifa appointed from Africa.
"I will be stationed in the city called Mendoza. This is where I will be and I’ll be responsible for that stadium,” said Ngwenya.
"I’m grateful to Fifa and I’m also grateful to Safa for creating such an opportunity and platform for me. I am also grateful to Caf for creating this platform for me because, I mean, if I did not get an opportunity at Safa and Caf, Fifa was never going to know of me.
“I’m looking forward to mingling with other professionals and learning because it’s always an opportunity to learn.
"I’m looking forward to bringing back the knowledge and helping South African football, and also African football."
Ngwenya has become one of the most respected experts in football and he was appointed as the Doping Control Officer for the World Cup in Qatar last year.
He also served in the same position during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon in 2022.
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