Cape Town - Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa stressed the importance of grass-roots youth development in sport during a visit to the Cape Town Spurs Football Club.
Thursday’s visit to the team’s base in Parow came after the senior team was promoted to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) last month.
CEO Alexi Efstathiou said the team, which had been in the PSL, was relegated five years ago due to a rule discrepancy.
“So it wasn’t basically a relegation via the football field, it was off the field. Being back here gives us the potential to now go back to what we were doing, and do it better and grow even more into becoming one of the powerhouses of South African football,” he said.
Team manager Thabiso “Shooz” Mekuto said that historically, the team was known for developing young players and seeing them make it to the first team. With the team of about 30 players, about 15 players had come from the team’s youth academy.
Head of youth Duncan Crowie said close to 100 juniors were a part of the programme. The youth are scouted from across the province and country, with the majority of its players from Cape Town and many from under-resourced communities.
“The main dream of every youngster coming through these doors is to leave as a professional soccer player, but as we know, not everybody makes it. But our aim is to get as many as possible through the door into the first team.”
Addressing the junior players, Kodwa said: “One of the reasons we have not done extremely well in men’s national football is we have not focused on grass-roots sport, which is yourselves. If all the national clubs can replicate and do what this team is doing, we’ll have the best national teams.”
Meanwhile, on the controversial match between Orlando Pirates against Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Spain, Kodwa said: “Of course, Pirates, like all of us, condemn what is happening in the occupation. But that has got nothing to do with suggesting that we have a policy of cultural boycott against Tel Aviv. We don't have one as a country.
“We have diplomatic and trade relations with Tel Aviv. At the moment, we condemn what is happening in Jenin, for example, the occupation and killing of innocent women and children, but we cannot condemn Orlando Pirates for participating in an off-season training.”