Zidane can continue coaching

MADRID: Zinedine Zidane has been cleared to continue coaching Real Madrid’s reserve squad while the Spanish Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAD) considers his club’s appeal against a three-month ban, Real said yesterday.

On Monday, Zidane was banned for three months for not having the necessary qualifications to coach in Spain.

Real appealed the decision and now the France legend, the two-goal hero of their World Cup final victory over Brazil on home soil in 1998, has been allowed to continue in his role.

Zidane’s assistant Santiago Sanchez, who was also sanctioned by the Spanish Federation (RFEF), has been likewise cleared to continue his duties.

“The TAD acquiesced to the club’s request for a provisional suspension (of the ban) which allows ... the coaches of Real Madrid Castilla, Santiago Sanchez and Zinedine Zidane, to perform their professional activities until such time as a decision is taken on Real Madrid’s appeal against the decision taken by the (RFEF) appeal committee,” said Real in a statement.

Real initially appealed to the Spanish federation’s appeals committee, according to local media, but when that was rejected, the 10-time European champions turned to the TAD. Real vehemently deny that Zidane does not have the necessary coaching qualifications to coach their reserve team, although he needs a Uefa ‘A’ licence level three badge to do so and he only holds a level two.

Spanish coaching school Cenafe submitted a complaint to the Spanish federation, alledging that Real were using Sanchez’s name on teamsheets as coach to get around the regulations preventing Zidane from coaching.

But Real claimed that Zidane “has been authorised by the French Football Federation to work as a head coach in the category Real Madrid Castilla currently find themselves in”.

Although Zidane has yet to complete the full quota of practice hours with the French Football Federation (FFF) to gain promotion to level three, the FFF supported Real’s case, saying on Tuesday that “Uefa regulations allow a coach who is being trained to exercise his job”. – Sapa-AFP O THE local football fan, the South African Football Association’s (Safa) talk of “Vision 2022” is all about their master plan to have a competitive Bafana Bafana team at the World Cup to be hosted by Qatar.

While to an extent that is the case, Vision 2022 is far bigger than just a good performance at the global showpiece. It is a project that can, if properly implemented, have more far-reaching consequences than merely seeing a Bafana Bafana team ranked among Africa’s top three and top 20 in the world reach the World Cup quarter-finals.

“It can change the nation,” Dr Robin Petersen beams, his excitement levels rising as he tucks into his breakfast during our early morning interview in Midrand this week.

As the chief executive officer of the Safa Development Agency, Petersen, who will be speaking on Vision 2022 at next week’s Soccerex Africa Forum at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, has been tasked with ensuring that this grand plan not only takes off but that it is a success. So, of course, he will talk it up – don’t they all? “Changing the Nation” is, in any case, part of Vision 2022’s slogan – “Changing Football, Changing the Nation”. So Petersen will, naturally, punt that line at every opportunity. Can it be done, though, especially given Safa’s long history of over-promise and under-delivery?

Petersen has no doubt Safa can help change South Africa into a better place. With the killing of Bafana goalkeeper and captain Senzo Meyiwa the hot topic in the country, Petersen revealed just how Vision 2022 can help rid the country of high levels of crime.

“There are more than 50 NGOs in the country that use football as the ‘hook’ to engage young people and, while we are looking to tap into that for that rare talent we hope to groom for 2022, we have no doubt that through our Development Plan we will be helping turn many young kids away from the criminal element that is so rife in the country.”

To this end, the agency has partnered with a “Football Safe Hub” in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, named Amandla EduFootball that actively engages no less than 2 000 young people per week to amazing effect.

“Verified research shows that since 2008,

Tthere has been a 42 percent reduction of violent crime within a 600m radius of the facility as well as a 49 percent increase in educational results of high-school pupils involved. That is remarkable in anyone’s standards,” Petersen gushes. “So we have approached them and have reached an agreement to work together and build a replicable social franchise as a means to scale the programme under ‘the Safa Football Plus’ brand.”

The plan, Petersen says, is to have similar programmes to the one in Khayelitsha country-wide – a move that will not only see Safa able to find talent for the national teams as early as 13-year-olds but also ensure youngsters are given life-skills that will keep them off the streets and away from crime.

“Obviously the most important aspect of the Safa Development Plan is to build a successful and robust talent pipeline through which we will produce winning national teams that will change how the nation feels about itself. And, as you know, our goal is to have Bafana always ranked in the top three in Africa and top 20 in the world by 2022 as well as the country being internationally recognised for football development and social transformation.”

And in view of these goals, the Safa Development Agency is working hard to get off the ground.

“Our role as a Safa agency is to ensure that the 2022 Development Plan is implemented. Yet, like in construction, you only get to see a skyscraper once it is up there. But a lot of foundation building that goes on is often unnoticed, and this is where we currently are,” Petersen explained before rattling off a number of the Agency’s successes thus far.

“The structure is set up. We have a good board and our trustees are people with good business sense and are helping us with governance.

“We received R3 million from