Fifa's announcement that it will donate R3 million to revive the erstwhile Football School of Excellence is a good start, but it is not enough
HAPPY New Year and all the best for 2011. Apologies for the unceremonious disappearance of Off-Side last year.
Half of it was because of computer gremlins and the other half was simply to take a break.
As we start 2011, I was heartened when Sowetan reported on Monday that Fifa was going to donate R3 million to revive the erstwhile Transnet Football School of Excellence.
It is a good start, which every football-loving South African must celebrate. But it is not enough.
Recently Fifa paid out $80million to South Africa for successfully hosting the 2010 World Cup. By any standards, this is a lot of money.
At the time of writing, this amounted to just under R550million in our terms. This money, said Fifa boss Sepp Blatter, would be deposited into a closely monitored trust and would not be available to individuals.
This is of course against the background of Safa bosses having the reputation of splurging money on themselves whenever there is a windfall, money that could be better spent on the game than themselves.
I can imagine a million good uses for this money. I'm sure that in the next few months, experts and pretenders will be offering ideas to Safa and whoever is willing to listen.
There are many ideas advanced already about how this fund can be well spent and none of these ideas is wrong. All of them are important. They range from incentivising the players more to investing in development.
Of course development is our challenge. Football is spectacularly behind on this front.
In my humble view, all of this money must go into re-establishing a soccer academy of the kind of the now-defunct Esselen Park School of Excellence, formerly sponsored by Transnet.
This academy, which produced among others the many stars of the 2000 Sydney Olympics magic Under-23 team, was, in township parlance, "drunk" by our football bosses and thus stunting what was a promising future only a decade ago.
Why all of this money on a football academy?
For starters because we need to really go back to basics and create our own stars, in our own backyard, playing our own game and with all the support they need.
The development academies of individual teams have only produced a few stars over the years but that has never been enough.
Putting all the money in the academy will also make it run as a business and therefore create a growing account for Safa. For starters, the PSL clubs will start recruiting from the academy and paying a fee to "buy" ready-made talent.
This will stop clubs picking up promising talents from "the streets" and exploiting them. If they came from the academy, they would be well marketed and managed.
Also, if the academy is professionally run, it will start attracting more sponsors and adding more money into Safa's coffers.
Sponsors always want to be associated with successful projects, especially those with future prospects.
The academy will bring in the best brains of football from all over the world and focus on preparing and producing junior national sides that will be ready to represent us in the next few Olympics and World Cups.
In addition, the players attending the academy will be full "professionals".
They will be given a proper diet, they will get a proper education and they will be protected from the vanities of the outside world, which tend to destroy careers before they get off the ground.
If and when the academy works well, all else will follow, including much-needed bums back on stadium seats.
Revival of school of excellence a good start
Fifa's announcement that it will donate R3 million to revive the erstwhile Football School of Excellence is a good start, but it is not enough
HAPPY New Year and all the best for 2011. Apologies for the unceremonious disappearance of Off-Side last year.
Half of it was because of computer gremlins and the other half was simply to take a break.
As we start 2011, I was heartened when Sowetan reported on Monday that Fifa was going to donate R3 million to revive the erstwhile Transnet Football School of Excellence.
It is a good start, which every football-loving South African must celebrate. But it is not enough.
Recently Fifa paid out $80million to South Africa for successfully hosting the 2010 World Cup. By any standards, this is a lot of money.
At the time of writing, this amounted to just under R550million in our terms. This money, said Fifa boss Sepp Blatter, would be deposited into a closely monitored trust and would not be available to individuals.
This is of course against the background of Safa bosses having the reputation of splurging money on themselves whenever there is a windfall, money that could be better spent on the game than themselves.
I can imagine a million good uses for this money. I'm sure that in the next few months, experts and pretenders will be offering ideas to Safa and whoever is willing to listen.
There are many ideas advanced already about how this fund can be well spent and none of these ideas is wrong. All of them are important. They range from incentivising the players more to investing in development.
Of course development is our challenge. Football is spectacularly behind on this front.
In my humble view, all of this money must go into re-establishing a soccer academy of the kind of the now-defunct Esselen Park School of Excellence, formerly sponsored by Transnet.
This academy, which produced among others the many stars of the 2000 Sydney Olympics magic Under-23 team, was, in township parlance, "drunk" by our football bosses and thus stunting what was a promising future only a decade ago.
Why all of this money on a football academy?
For starters because we need to really go back to basics and create our own stars, in our own backyard, playing our own game and with all the support they need.
The development academies of individual teams have only produced a few stars over the years but that has never been enough.
Putting all the money in the academy will also make it run as a business and therefore create a growing account for Safa. For starters, the PSL clubs will start recruiting from the academy and paying a fee to "buy" ready-made talent.
This will stop clubs picking up promising talents from "the streets" and exploiting them. If they came from the academy, they would be well marketed and managed.
Also, if the academy is professionally run, it will start attracting more sponsors and adding more money into Safa's coffers.
Sponsors always want to be associated with successful projects, especially those with future prospects.
The academy will bring in the best brains of football from all over the world and focus on preparing and producing junior national sides that will be ready to represent us in the next few Olympics and World Cups.
In addition, the players attending the academy will be full "professionals".
They will be given a proper diet, they will get a proper education and they will be protected from the vanities of the outside world, which tend to destroy careers before they get off the ground.
If and when the academy works well, all else will follow, including much-needed bums back on stadium seats.