British football scout and businessman, Ray Whelan, spoke at the launch of the 2016 Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament. The tournament will take place at the Nike Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto from 14 to 19 March.
In his role as tournament director, Whelan praised the Dutch side ADO Den Haag, one of the oldest Dutch football clubs, for the legacy they left behind in communities around Gauteng when the club’s U17 team and technical staff came to participate in last year’s tournament.
“The Dutch side were by far the most outstanding visitors to this country in this tournament,” he said.
“They came here with a container full of [soccer] kit which, besides personally distributing the items to communities they visited for coaching clinics such as Alexandra and Soweto, also donated some of the stuff to the Gauteng Department of Education and the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation for distribution to needy schools.”
In Alexandra, the Dutch team not only distributed balls and kits for the beautiful game, but some of the players brought bags full of their own clothes and those from their friends and relatives which they also distributed to needy children in Alex who were part of the coaching clinics.
“We must commend the Dutch side for the beautiful legacy which they left, a feat that is still to be matched or outdone,” Whelan added. “They were such fantastic visitors who embraced and interacted well with the local communities they visited.”
Whelan described the Future Champions tournament as ‘a football gold and diamond mine’ which seeks to unearth talent for the South African Football Association. “Football diamonds are scattered all over this country but one needs to have the right know-how in order to mine these diamonds and hone their skills to perfection for the benefit of the beautiful game and its followers in the country and the world at large,” Whelan said
He cited one of these diamonds, Refiloe Jane, a girl from Soweto who outshone the boys and mesmerised everybody with her football skills. “We unearthed Refiloe from nowhere and gave her a platform to shine and prove her worth, which she did. And today she is a top football star in Banyana Banyana. There are many other Refiloe diamonds out there waiting to be mined.”
