Safa's plan to get business to back development

THE South African Football Association is using tonight's match at Soccer City to try to convince business to back its future development plans.

Around 100 captains of industry have been invited to the international match against Zambia at Soccer City and will be presented with the association's technical master plan, some details of which have been leaked in recent months but which is now being released in its entirety for the first time.

Safa needs millions to pay for the ambitious plans, which have the goals of seeing Bafana Bafana consistently in the top three in Africa and the top 20 in the world.

While soccer officials will have access to some of the post-2010 World Cup legacy money, much more is needed if they are to get their plans going.

Safa has identified "seven streams of success":

- Develop and entrench at all levels a uniform South African national football philosophy;

- Train and deploy sufficient coaches to create a 1:20 ratio of coach to players (150000 coaches in 10 years);

- Build a rich and robust talent identification and development pipeline that starts at under-13 age level at local levels;

- Build and administer a comprehensive national competition framework built on a foundation of clubs, who must be licensed;

- Deploy and upgrade infrastructure and administration;

- Identify and utilise the best and most appropriate technology at all levels; and

- Use the best-researched and most up-to-date practice of sports science and medicine to ensure the full development of players.

In the presentation, Safa says a roll-out of this "master plan" will create a "virtuous cycle of success".