FIFA intensify plans to improve SA football

Speaking to SABC Sport after a two-week discovery visit, Selvey confirmed the world’s football governing body is targeting the first six months of 2023 as the turnaround period.

A few months ago, SABC Sport ran a series of stories on the FIFA programme called Increasing Global Competitiveness, aimed at analysing the talent development ecosystem in South Africa. The 81-page report, which focused on SA football, was produced by the office of former Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development.

In this diagnosis of the poor standards of the local game, the report highlighted the significant lack of investment in talent development and education that needs to be addressed in SA football.

Speaking at the South African Football Association (Safa) Ekurhuleni Caf C-License coaching course, alongside Safa Technical Director Walter Steenbok, Selvey confirmed these are some of the issues they hope to resolve in 2023.

“The Talent Development Scheme is the global programme launched by FIFA, to try and give every talent a chance and Arsene Wenger, who is the Chief of Football at FFA and head of our project, feels that a lot of players are lost because of talent ID systems and lack of structures in different countries.

“And it’s our reign to come into different countries and help them find every single player that could potentially be a professional football player,” said Selvey.

The report also noted the junior national teams' lack of exposure to quality competition and the limited playing schedule, hindering player growth.

Due to a shortage of camps for junior national teams, the national men's U20 squad has already failed to qualify for the U20 African Cup of Nations event in Cairo in March 2023.

“It’s our belief that to get players to improve to the highest level, you have to have the best players training and playing against the best players. 

“And they have to be exposed to the best competition, whether that’s playing country vs country or getting them ready to play international football at U15 or U17 level. We just want to grow the global game and give every player a chance,” continued Selvey. 

Additionally, SABC Sport has learned Selvey spent time at the School of Excellence, where Steenbok had previously disclosed plans to restore the school's status as the national key point for accelerated talent development. SABC Sport understands as a follow-up to the ecosystem report, FIFA has allocated close to a million rand to Safa to address the identified shortcomings in technical matters. 

“Some funding has been created and there are high-performance specialists from around the world, who are now working with each federation strategically to find the best solution to the challenges identified.

“Our role as talent coaches, we are known as accelerators of the programme and we are being sent in, to work with coaches and players on the ground and assist with coach development and education.

“And really give the players an environment where they can thrive and flourish and make it to those international teams in the  U15, U17, and U20. That would then allow the qualification groups to be more competitive, which would then hopefully make the World Cup more competitive in 2026 and 2030...going forward,” concluded Selvey.