“Football is in my DNA. I have played football ever since I can remember, so building a football academy in Caledon is a dream come true. I am truly over the moon about this development.”
So says Tankiso Modipa, chairperson of the South African Football Association (Safa) Western Cape and president of Safa Overberg.
“After seeing a television programme about a bogus football academy, where hopeful players and their distraught parents got totally scammed, I realised there is a need for a proper, legitimate football academy.”
Modipa’s dream is set to become a reality in the near future, when Caledon will have its own football academy, the first region to do this. “I presented the idea to the Executive Committee of Safa Overberg and it took us almost three years to research what is required for building such an academy and to get everything in place.”
On 21 May the academy was officially launched, with most regional presidents as well as Safa president Dr Danny Jordaan present. He congratulated the Overberg region on the launch of the academy and said: “Football is now the dominant sport in the area, which was previously known for rugby. It is the appropriate and correct step to take it to the next level and to produce players through the academy system. The development here is just amazing: the coaches, development programmes, the Women’s League they are running, together with the youth competitions that they have developed. I think it is a huge push for football in the area.”
Modipa said Safa had sent him and others guidelines for starting the academy.
“We have to tick all the boxes and ensure we comply with all the requirements. We need to be licensed in order to build the academy, which will concentrate on football but will not neglect the academic aspect. Because we do not have a venue yet, we are running a pilot project in partnership with Swartberg Secondary school, where we use its old school hall and football fields. For now, we are dealing only with the football aspect. The bulk of players, ranging in ages from u-12 to u-19 have already been identified.”
Modipa says the organising group already has spoken to Theewaters-kloof Municipality and a suitable piece of land behind Uitsig has been identified for building the academy.
“We are still busy with the compliance issues, such as building plans and so on. As soon as these have been approved we are set to start building.
“It will be a boarding school, which will be able to accommodate 200 scholars. We aim to start with 160, divided equally between boys and girls.
“We already have investors on board and the partners we will be working with will identify and facilitate the requirements for the academic side of things. There is a very strong possibility of an overseas investor coming on board as well.
“The school will be English-medium and will cater mainly for children from the Overberg region. We will select the best students in each age group who already play football. We will nurture and coach them with the hope of exporting them to the national arena or even overseas. There is definitely a growing interest in football, and at this stage it looks as if girls are more interested than boys.
“We were recently able to send four young women, three from Bot River and one from Zwelihle to Georgia to play professional football.”
Modipa says the academy, which will have four football fields, will definitely benefit the community, as local clubs will be able to use the facilities, which will also include a cinema, food court, swimming pool and conference centre.
Obviously, attending an academy like this could be very costly, but Madipa says with the investors they have, school fees will be greatly reduced, in order to accommodate promising children from poorer backgrounds as well.
“We will have regular fundraising functions and people can sponsor children as well.
“It has been very hard work, but I am overjoyed to see that this dream is eventually getting off the ground.”