Safa launches football for schools programme

South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan on Wednesday welcomed educators from all over the country at the Safa Technical Centre in Johannesburg South.

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The educators are attending the inaugural Fifa Football for Schools Programme, which aims at reviving schools sports and producing talents from schools both male and female.

Safa, along with the department of sports, arts and culture as well as the department of basic education have joined hands in this initiative to have players who went through this programme to be playing for both the senior men and female national teams by 2030.

“In football you plan for four years, from one World Cup to the next. We had Vision 2022, which ends with the Qatar World Cup in December. The next four years is 2022 to 2026 and a major focus of Vision 2030, which has two phases, Phase One (2022 to 2026) and Phase Two (2026 to 2030), and we have to talk about where this programme fits in terms of the future of South African football,” said Jordaan.

Programme director Fatimata Sow Sidibe said she is happy to be in the country and says it is vital to prepare the future stars now that could one day see African nations and clubs reaching the Fifa tournament’s finals.

“We are happy to be here because the president (Jordaan) mentioned that in Africa we should have players and clubs going to the final of the World Cup. We have to be prepared, we have to be prepared now and we have to prepare the future generations.”

The programme is expected to end on Friday.