Uncertainty persists for Schools' League

Lack of implementation has always been one of the biggest challenges in South African football, if not in the local society as a whole. Schools football has long been seen as one of the easiest vehicles toward improving the quality of football talent that is unearthed and harnessed for elite football. 

The Kay Motsepe U19 Schools Championship, which was first introduced under the banner of Safa’s former Associate Member, the South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa), a structure that was dealt with politically and is now in the wilderness after a bitter legal battle with its mother body. 

Having taken a break due to Covid in 2020, the tournament returned this year, and Clapham High School, which also doubles up as a feeder to Mamelodi Sundowns with not less than 80% of the players coming from the Brazilians academy, defended the title. They defeated the famed SA schools football talent factory School of Excellence 2-1 to win the final and R1 million in prize money and School of Excellence took home R600 000. 

In their presentation in Parliament last year, Safa committed to starting a National Schools League in 2021 and were aiming at 18 schools starting the league. The plan was to start with the nine provincial winners from the 2019 edition and mix them with nine schools from the Model C schools for social cohesion and racial inclusion. 

This league was to be a weekly scheduled fixture, with round-robin matches played home and away, every Saturday from 10 am. 

At the end of the season, the plan was to relegate the two bottom teams to the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup, whilst the two finalists in the Cup were to be promoted in the opposite direction. 

There appeared to already be a plan in place between Safa and the Motsepe Foundation to roll out this programme according to the presentation that was made in parliament, but 380 days later it remains a dream. 

Speaking to SABC Sport, Safa Schools Football Consultant Steve Pila, who is not permanent at the organization and does not have a team of officials working with him, remains hopeful things would change. 

“The envisaged plan is to have functional plans at all levels, local, regional, provincial and national and this includes the Kay Motsepe level too. 

“More importantly have the league format, our U14, U15, U17, and U19 competitions playing more regularly every Friday and Saturday. So that we are able to strengthen our league system because the knockout tournaments don’t help a lot in respect of development,” Pila explained the plan behind schools football leagues. 

SABC Sport has also learned that the relationship between the main stakeholders, Safa, the Department of Sport, and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has been the cause of these delays. It’s believed that DBE has been dragging its feet in the implementation of a clear football programme at public schools.