o_18thitrba1dr417tbpqe1soiuvva.pdf

p44 :: Sport
Developing
team sport
and sales
Soccer, rugby and netball are the biggest participation
sports in South Africa — and therefore generate
good retail sales. What are the sport federations doing
to keep the grass roots numbers high and create
new customers? YAMKELA MKEBE reports
At grassroots level, soccer, netball
and rugby are the most popular
participation sports in South Africa.
Of these, by far most active
South Africans play soccer, while
netball tops the charts for women.
In a survey conducted for Sport and Recreation
SA (SRSA) in 2005 titled Participation
Patterns in Sport and Recreation Activities in
South Africa, 11% of the respondents said that
they played soccer — compared to the 3% who
play netball, 2% who play rugby and 1% or less,
who participate in cricket and all other sports
In addition, 29% of the non-participants said
they wanted to play soccer — 17% only socially.
In comparison, 9% non-participants said they
wanted to play netball (5% socially) and 5%
rugby (3% socially).
The kit, balls and footwear sold for these
sports constitute an important part of a sport
retailer’s stock. Retailers therefore have a
vested interest to know that new players are
constantly being recruited, that the necessary
facilities and training are in place, and
that they are kept interested in participating
through sufficient leagues and competitions.
In other words, that enough is being done to
grow these sports at grassroots level.
Soccer development plans
In the trying times experienced by South African
soccer on international level, plans to
improve the standard of the game from grassroots
level, have been tabled. The South African
Football Association (SAFA) announced
their development plans to strengthen soccer
after a three-day SAFA lekgotla in February.
Sports Trader :: 2014 March
There are currently 341
LFA’s registered with SAFA,
each LFA representing
from 30 to over 200 clubs
This comes not long after new SAFA president
Danny Jordaan said that “big changes
are underway at SAFA, not just at the national
team level, but at grassroots. If we want to
build a winning team for the future, we have
to have efficient structures in place right from
school level.”
These remarks were made in January, just
after Bafana Bafana was knocked out in the
early stages of the African Nations Championship
(Chan). Jordaan promised a new name,
new technical staff and a new technical sponsor
for the national team.
In the beginning of last year, after SAFA
failed to act against officials identified by FIFA
in a pre-2010 match fixing scandal, Puma and
ABSA withdrew as sponsors, but Nike stepped
in as sponsor at the beginning of this year.
Shortly after he was elected to head a revamped
SAFA board at the end of last year,
Jordaan spelled out a development plan for
the next ten years.
One of the objectives of SAFA’s Master Technical
Plan, also known as Vision 2022, is to
have all the national football teams ranked in
the top three in Africa and in the top twenty
in the world. They hope to achieve this in the
next ten years.
History shows that this aim is not beyond
reach, as Bafana Bafana was ranked #19 in
1996, when they also occupied the #1 spot
in Africa, and won the African Cup of Nations
trophy. It will, however, be an uphill battle
as according to FIFA’s latest rankings, Bafana
Bafana is #64 in the world and #12 in Africa,
and the women’s team, Banyana Banyana, at
#50 in the world and #4 in Africa.The men’s
team have been unable to do sufficiently well
in Africa to qualify for the last few World Cups
on merit.
But, to regain the ground that was lost over
the past twenty years, soccer will have to be
improved from the bottom up.
When Bafana Bafana won the CAF trophy in
2000, Clive Barker had a pool of at least 200
South Africans in the 20 teams in the domestic
leagues to choose from. Now, the 16 domestic
teams only need to have six local players, giving
Gordon Igesund effectively 96 players to
choose from, SAFA reported to the Parliamentary
Committe on Sport.
Grassroots development
Apart from the current hundred private development
centres and sport school academies
registered with SAFA, they will now establish a
number of academies in all provinces.
“Ideally, each of the academies should
house 15 players at each age level from U14
upwards,” says SAFA Development Agency
(SDA) CEO, Dr Robin Petersen. “They will be
launched province by province as we identify
suitable partners and places,” he adds.
The SDA, headed by the former SAFA CEO,
was established a year ago with the aim of improving
soccer below national level. But, their
scope was limited by funds, having raised only