Safa’s youth programme still on track

BAFANA Bafana’s failure to qualify for the Fifa World Cup in Russia next year will not derail the South African Football Association’s (Safa) Vision 2022‚ Development Agency chief executive Robin Petersen said.

Bafana’s 2018 World Cup qualifying hopes crashed and burned a few days ago after backto-back defeats to Senegal‚ but Petersen maintains that the much-criticised programme remains on track.

“Obviously, qualifying for the World Cup in Russia would have helped a lot, but our target remains the U17 and U20 World Cups and 2020 Olympics in Tokyo for the U23s, and we are halfway there‚” he said.

“The benchmarks are those three junior tournaments because the bulk of players that will make the Bafana Bafana squad for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will come from those tournaments.”

Petersen‚ who is a former PSL chief executive and also headed Safa‚ admitted that Bafana’s failure to book a place in Russia was a setback and could have significantly helped the programme.

South Africa failed to qualify for the U17 World Cup that was won by England in India last month, but there is hope that they will qualify for the next tournament in two years’ time‚ which will be held in a country yet to be confirmed.

Amajimbos qualified for the U20 World Cup in May in Korea, but failed to progress to the next round.

Amajita will be hoping to qualify for the second tournament in succession which is to be held in either India‚ Poland or Peru.

The U23 side qualified for last year’s Olympic Games but ended bottom of their group.

The next showpiece will be held in Tokyo.