Dodgy academies are damaging the game
Earlier this year I got a call from a friend back in KwaZulu-Natal asking me to do some research for him on a football academy based in Protea Glen and luckily for him, I live in that area.
He said his nephew had asked for his permission and support as he had been accepted at the academy which claimed to have close ties with Bidvest Wits.
At the mention of Wits, alarm bells rang out in my head but I didn’t want to tell him that this couldn’t be true. He sent me the details of the so-called academy and I first put the address on Google Maps and it didn’t come up. But the street was there, just that the number could not be found.
I later found out that the num- ber belongs to a townhouse at Protea Glen Extension 11. That is when I told the guy there was something fishy about this academy because it can’t be run from a townhouse with no training facilities in the vicinity and I didn’t recall seeing a bus or minibus taxi with an inscription of the African Rising Stars Academy anywhere around Soweto which is something I would expect to see as he had described the academy as modern and well-equipped.
I told him Wits would never ask for parents to pay food and accommodation fees for their kids because they do these things as part of their corporate social investment.
Fortunately he took my advice and told his nephew he would not be joining the academy and I believe @SbongsKaDonga he was unhappy and accused his uncle of killing his career aspirations.
And on Monday I received a WhatsApp message from a colleague based in Durban telling me to watch SABC 3’s Special Assignment as they would be exposing con artists who masquerade as either scouts or football academy owners.
I forwarded the message to my friend and told him to ensure his nephew also watched. And the first guy they exposed was none other than the owner of the African Rising Stars Academy. He inadvertently admitted that he was a con artist and there also have been allegations of indecent assault and rape levelled against him by the young players under his care.
They claimed that he promised he would take them to a big club if the young boy agreed to his sexual demands. There were a lot of others exposed in this scam and the SABC said they would show more on Monday.
What has surprised me since all this is that Safa have been worryingly quiet on this and as custodians of the game, one would have thought they would be vocal on the matter. But maybe I am too hasty because the producers of Special Assignment promised they will speak to football administrators next week.
After watching that episode, my first reaction was anger towards the parents who are gullible and do not do any research before sending their kids up to Johannesburg to join an academy. But then I remembered that I would also be so proud if my child was so good at football that an academy wanted to groom him and that he could actually have a career and make a living out of the game. There is huge money in football these days after all.
This is something we will all need to stand up and fight against and Safa should take leadership in the matter because what these guys are doing is tarnishing the image of the game.