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South Africa will have a new Under-15 national team by July this year.
This is the assurance from Safa technical director Walter Steenbok following the launch of the Under-15 interprovincial tournament on Wednesday.
Steenbok said the pilot programme, which will start with the boys teams and later involve the young girls, seeks to develop the game from the bottom up.
The event will be played in Johannesburg on July 8 and it is in partnership with the Fifa TDS programme, a talent development scheme established by the world football governing body last year to offer assistance to its member associations.
South Africa is one of the nominated to test the project.
Steenbok revealed that Fifa had made $50 000 (R889 000) available for the event where nine provincial teams will play against invited academies.
@FIFAcom and SAFA launch their U15 TDS programme this morning at SAFA House.
— SAFA.net (@SAFA_net) February 8, 2023
The U15 Interprovincial Tournament will be aimed to prepare the 2025 U17 National Team. pic.twitter.com/fbNPpHTMfm
The tournament will culminate with the selection of an Under-15 national side, he said.
In choosing South Africa, Steenbok cited a report compiled by Fifa, which raised a number of issues, key among them the country’s apparent lack of technical expertise.
At the media launch at Safa House in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg Steenbok said:
Steenbok recently completed 100 days in office since he was appointed by Safa to head its technical division.
The Under-15 project is the first major announcement since he assumed office late last year, a move that ended Safa’s long search for a technical director since former Bafana captain Neil Tovey vacated the post in June 2020.
Added the former player scout:
READ: Steenbok: Refrain from social media scouting, give us proper scouting reports instead
In terms of the the format, Steenbok said:
The tournament will play for one day.
The format will be a nine versus nine [games].We’ll try to use small fields because we really want to see the technical ability of the players and the exceptional talent that can really come out there.
In total, the teams will be made up of 19 members – 16 players, two technical members, a head coach and an assistant.
Also, in terms of the coaches’ qualification, we don’t want to exclude people who are qualified. The coaches who are there must possess the Safa level one and two [licences] from the old qualification system, as well as CAF A and B Licence holders.
So, we are really raising the standards.
Steenbok added that Safa will host a seminar on the eve of the tournament to “address a lot [of things] that will take South African football forward”.
He explained: This will involve the coaches who are part of the tournament. It’s more of a refresher [session] but again, to share the national playing philosophy, which is under refinement. We’ll also share the player profiling mechanism that we are using. We’ll also invite the national team coaches from [Bafana head coach] Hugo Broos downwards, who’ll come and share information.
