Thabo Dladla is a highly committed youth coach and former professional player with AmaZulu FC. His weekly ‘Talking Football’ column in a Pietermaritzburg newspaper focuses on the game at the grassroots, not on the 2010 World Cup or the PSL. ‘There is something wrong when a country with over 48 million people and a huge football budget cannot produce good players,’ writes Dladla this week.
‘I still believe that our country has some of the best talent at U12 level but poor leadership is letting the youth down. We have too many politicians and sports leaders who are more interested in the benefits that can be gained for themselves, than the sport itself.
‘Post 2010 South African youth deserve better than what they are getting now. The transformation of football should be felt at the lowest of levels. We can no longer allow a situation where a few get fatter while the players continue to suffer.’
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3 replies on “Talking Football in KwaZulu-Natal”
Thabo Dladla’s concern about poor management of football, characterized by corruption and inneficiency is not just a South African problem, it is an African problem. Indeed, the untapped talent among the youth in African villages, townships and slums is staggeringly high, and what’s even more annoying, the small fraction of talent that somehow gets to the surface is poorly managed. The epitome of this scenario I think is in Kenya, where for almost a decade now, our football management structures are as strong and as consolidated as the governance structures of our neighbouring Somalia.
Solomon,
Correct. Part of the problem is that football is, like the state, another means for certain figures/groups in African countries/economies to access and hoard resources (in this case money from the contracts of talented players who can get contracts in Euros or Dollars)
what was and is missing in the world cup is the existance of a lobby – can someone start a online and grassroot lobby to highlight the lack of state support for sports and for soccer in particular.
we could start by asking the Youth League and COSATU to put the issue of sports high up on their agenda at their next executive meeting.
Can someone in the sports world initate this campaign.