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Safa keen to give junior teams a leg up

FOCUSED: Danny Jordaan
FOCUSED: Danny Jordaan

THE South African Football Association wants to prioritise junior competitions to ensure the country produces quality youngsters to qualify for continental and global tournaments.

Speaking at the Safa Burger King Under-19 Championships draw yesterday, Safa president Danny Jordaan said it was a cause for concern that the junior national teams no longer feature in big international competitions.

"In Germany, they play 80000 matches during the weekends, we also have to create platforms for mass participation in our country," Jordaan said.

"We had a successful under-17 tournament last weekend, where Shakes Mashaba, Fran Hilton-Smith and other coaches were there to select good players.

"Our aim is to see junior national teams do well again. The last time we went to the World Under-20 Championships finals was in 1997 with Shakes as coach.

"The last time we had an under-23 national team qualifying for the Olympic Games was in 2000, also with Shakes as coach.

"That's a long time but it's good that we [Amajita] won the Cosafa Under-20 Cup [in Lesotho in December]. We hope to see more success," he added.

Three Premier Soccer League sides have been invited to participate in the tournament to be held in Bloemfontein from April 27 to May 1.

Bloemfontein Celtic, SuperSport United and Ajax Cape Town will be joined by the nine teams selected from the provinces.

During the draw, which was conducted at Safa House in Nasrec, the PSL clubs were placed in the three different groups.

United are in Group A with Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Celtic were paired in Group B with Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. The teams in Group C are Ajax, Northern Cape, North West and Free State.

Speaking at the same function, Safa's competitions director Balebetse Monnakgotla said all the matches will be played at the Clive Solomon Stadium.

"Each match will be played over 70 minutes. The top teams in each group will qualify for the semifinals along with the best runners-up."

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