SA's 2010 World Cup strategy

2004-09-14 21:59

Gert Coetzee

Cape Town - The race has started to get a "Winning Team 2010" of South African soccer players off the ground.

The average age of the players should be 26 and by 2010 they should have played at least 30 senior and 20 junior international matches.

To further this plan, Albert Mokoena, CEO of the South African Football Association (Safa) and Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter on Tuesday left for France.

They will hold talks with the soccer bosses there about their team-building exercises, which led to France winning the World Cup in 1998.

The establishment of a national soccer academy is also indispensable to Safa's plan for "Winning Team 2010".

Mokoena and Baxter told parliament's portfolio committee on sport and recreation on Tuesday they had no illusions about the pressure on a South African soccer team to play in the 2010 SWC tournament.

Mokoena said: "If Bafana Bafana lose their first match in the tournament, the enthusiasm will be killed off."

In accordance with Baxter's contract, Bafana Bafana have to deliver good performances in the 2006 African Nations Cup tournament in Egypt, the 2008 SWC tournament in Germany and again in the 2010 SWC tournament in South Africa.

Must begin immediately

Butana Komphela, chairperson of the portfolio committee, said it was expected "the system" would deliver a winning team by 2010.

A good performance by Bafana Bafana would contribute to people in the second economy being lifted to the first economy.

Mokoena and Baxter emphasised that it would be too late if the development of a winning team didn't begin immediately.

Baxter pointed out that profiles of seven of the last eight winning teams in the SWC tournament showed the average age had been 26.

The teams all had home advantage and were used to the local climate.

Baxter said: "But the most-important aspect was that the teams had been the product of a long-term development plan.

"With the ages and matches we could always make a plan, but not with the long-term planning."

'Inside lane to the senior team'

The national soccer academy will focus on coaching a group of 30 players aged between 17 and 20.

The development programme includes talent scouts, quality coaching, good facilities and stadiums, international exposure and an "inside lane to the senior team".

Baxter said not enough soccer was played in South African schools.

An example was Gonzales Hoffman, a young South African who played his first match for Chile, his father's country of birth, two weeks ago.

Hoffman sen said his son went overseas because of a lack of exposure in South Africa.

- Volksblad