Transform your sport, or else — Sascoc
THE South African Football Association (Safa) will have to start wooing more white and Indian players into its talent identification programmes to conform to a new policy whereby sports federations are required to deregister and reregister.
Initiated by the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) after a meeting of the presidents’ council last year, the policy is aimed at reorganising and streamlining how sports are governed and funded, said chief executive officer Tubby Reddy.
By forcing all federations to register from scratch Sascoc hopes to ensure there is good corporate governance, which would allow sports bodies to concentrate on getting more podium finishes at international sporting competitions, including the Olympic Games.
Sascoc hopes the move will also force the federations to channel more energy into development to ensure teams going beyond the borders for international competitions are in line with the demographics of the country.
That would require Safa to attract more white youngsters into its junior national teams so that Bafana Bafana will have more Dean Furmans, Davide Sommas, Ricardo Nuneses and Wayne Sandilandses.
Many whites have succeeded in local soccer, including Phil Venter, George Dearnaley, Neil and Mark Tovey and Mark Anderson and Shane McGregor, while Indian players included Gorah Ebrahim, Sulie Bhamjee, Ravi Pillay and Mohammed Bhamjee.
“There has been a notion in the past that Bafana Bafana was too black, but we are seeing the situation changing,” explained Reddy, arguing that there were some sections of the nation that wanted to see more white players in soccer.
“The same thing happened with the volleyball national team — it was too Indian.
“There will be a change in all the teams representing South Africa. We want the federations to give us a concrete plan in terms of transformation.
“They need to show us that these are the targets for 2014, 2015 and so on. We want to revolutionise sport in South Africa. The new policy has the blessing of all the presidents of our federations.”
Reddy was quick to point out that they were not targeting any particular federation.
“For example, Safa will still run their affairs and report directly to their international body, Fifa.
“We just want to make sure everything is done in a more coordinated and transparent way as the people controlling sport in SA.”
All 76 federations registered must deregister by the end of April.
Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula has made it clear he wants sport in South Africa to get more funding to help the country to succeed internationally.
“Federations that do not meet the criteria will not be granted Sascoc membership and won’t receive any funding,” said Reddy.
Alec Moemi, director-general of sports and recreation, is lining up a series of workshops to ensure the resolutions of the indaba and the cabinet-approved National Sport and Recreation Plan are implemented.
“Failure [to meet Sascoc membership requirements] means no Olympic participation, no state guarantees [for the hosting of international competitions] and no funding.”
The proposed changes are also aimed at ending disputes affecting several federations. Athletics South Africa, for example, has been plagued by board infighting and allegations of financial mismanagement.
In the past Sascoc has also had to intervene in cricket, basketball, karate and power-boating because of administration issues.