One of the oldest club’s in Alexandra, Gunners Football Club is in resurgence and hoping to be a competitive outfit of a different kind.
The club, a member of the Alexandra North Rand Football Association has reformulated its strategy to focus on development through a four to six year plan starting with the boys teams, with girls teams to follow next year. It has registered U13, U15, U19 and U20 players and 23 senior players who currently play in the Alexandra Football Association League.
Their aim is to develop these different age groups as an academy where they will be provided tactical and technical awareness of the game. The club expects them to be winners once they become formidable teams, and also winners in the classroom as all of them are school children deliberately recruited to help keep them off the streets.
The club has also reformulated its governance with a restructured constitution, long-term plan and programme, and an executive of outstanding citizens driven by a desire to give back to the community.
The executive are president, John Mahlangu, chairperson, Bigboy Moetlo, secretary general, Rulani Baloyi, marketing and media liaison, Stanley Makhubela, and coaches, Freddy Kgaphala, Tumi Tsiana and Sechaba Mothibi who head the development, scouting and coaching respectively.
Makhubela said the focus on school children was a conscious decision to help improve their chances of becoming better citizens through commitment to education. “Most of the problems faced by children result from them spending idle time in the company of wrong characters who instil negative influence in them,” he said. “These characters only want to discourage the children from succeeding and improving their chances for a better life either academically or through sports. That’s why Alexandra is struggling to have a team in the premier soccer league.
“We want the teams to be playing in more competitive leagues by 2020 and feeding into the senior team which we expect to challenge for promotion to higher leagues in four years,” he added.
The teams practise at Victory Park in Lombardy East, and the club is appealing for partnerships and sponsorship to help it achieve its objective.
Details: Stanley Makhubela; 083 558 3675, facebook:Alexandra gunnersfootballclub
