Schools Cup match curtain raiser for Sundowns vs. Supersport United

It has been confirmed! The launch match of the u.19 Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup between the reigning champions, Clapham High School and the 2012 champions, the School of Excellence, both from Gauteng, has been scheduled as the curtain raiser to the Sundowns vs. Supersport United PSL match at Loftus today Tuesday May 6. The first game will take place on field B, kick-off at 17:30 followed by the PSL game at 19:30.

Entrance to the curtain raiser is free and Sundowns is also offering the first 500 fans arriving between 16:30 and 17:00 at the stadium a ticket to the later derby match, but they must be dressed in Sundowns colours.

The tournament is co-funded by Sanlam, the Motsepe Foundation and the Sanlam Ubuntu-Botho Community Development Trust, and managed by the South African Schools Football Association (SASFA) and the Department of Basic Education.

The Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup plays an invaluable role in the development of football in South Africa, providing organised, competitive competition for the schools involved. It also, through its prize money, makes a major contribution to community development.

This year, R3,4 million will be paid out to schools, with the provision that they use the money to fund educational and community projects in their areas that will benefit the wider community on a long term basis.

The prize money increased dramatically when Sanlam came on board five years ago, and in that time over R13,6 million has been used successfully to fund projects such as the drilling of boreholes, building of classrooms, administration blocks, gyms, soccer fields and other sports facilities, the purchase of transport vehicles including busses, and on the education side computers, teaching aids etc have been purchased.

The winning school at the national final tournament will walk away with R1 million. The second, third and fourth placed schools will receive R600 000, R500 000 and R400 000 respectively. The nine provincial winners will each receive R100 000 for their efforts.

The highlight of the tenth anniversary of the tournament is likely to be the on-going rivalry between Clapham High School, the current champions, the School of Excellence and the most successful team in the history of the tournament, Harmony High School from Virginia in the Free State.

The Mamelodi Sundowns Development Academy players are schooled at Clapham, while The School of Excellence is a sports academy that has supplied many players to PSL, first division as well as second and third division clubs over the years.

Mamelodi Sundown’s Percy Tau was part of the Clapham team in 2013 and was named the player of the tournament. After successfully completing grade 12 last year, he was incorporated into the Sundowns first team and so far has come in as a substitute for matches and has scored two goals.