| 2010 World Cup | ||
| Story of SA Football | ||
| South African Football today | ||
| Despite decades of denial, disadvantage and the liberation struggle, South African football has advanced to be the country’s number one national sport. It has the largest number of registrated players (1.8 million), the highest television audiences and the greatest number of spectators, week after week. These are the measures of success. Since the formation of the united South African Football Association in 1991, football has made immense strides, establishing a strong infrastructure to channel the people’s historic passion for the game, emerging from the days of oppression into a golden era of glory and prosperity. During the past 12 years, South Africa has established itself as a positive, constructive member of the football family, entering teams in every CAF and FIFA competition, right from under-17s to the top level of the game, where the national team has successfully qualified for the World Cup finals in 1998 and 2002. | ||
 |
||
| The Roots | ||
| The roots of football in South Africa reach far back into the 19th century, when the game’s official structures reflected the racial divisions in society at the time. The ‘whites-only’ Football Association of South Africa, later to be known as FASA, was formed already in 1892, while the SA Indian Football Association (SAIFA), the SA Bantu Football Association (SABFA) and the SA Coloured Football Association (SACFA) were only launched in 1903, 1933 and 1936 respectively. Whites were playing in their own club structures, feeding the ‘whites-only’ national team, and, sentimentally and psychologically, being geared towards Europe. Blacks were left somehow to play the game among themselves, denied facilities and funding. In 1958, FIFA officially recognised the white body, FASA, as the sole governing body of football in South Africa and the National Football League was launched in 1959 as the country’s first entirely professional club league. It was reserved for whites. | ||
 |
||
| White and Black | ||
| International pressure led to the FIFA suspension in 1962. The FASA tried hard to present non-racial football in a very racial country, but when, in 1963, the FIFA Executive lifted South Africa’s suspension, FASA responded by announcing the country would send a white side to the 1966 World Cup in England, and a black team to Mexico in 1970. South Africa was again suspended from FIFA in 1964, In isolated darkness the game continued to flow in two separate streams, but against all odds, football continued to thrive in the townships. Vast, peaceful crowds streamed to township venues like Orlando Stadium in Soweto, saluting heroes who were enshrined in folklore from the Cape to the Limpopo, and even further north. | ||
 |
||
| Post Apartheid | ||
| The repeal of apartheid legislation in 1990 started unity talks at every level of South African football and in 1991, four historically divided bodies finally reached across the negotiating table and founded the South African Football Association (SAFA) on non-racial, democratic principles. SAFA was welcomed into the African fold by an unforgettable standing ovation at the Confederation of African Football’s congress of 1992 in Dakar and then jubilantly admitted as a FIFA member in June 1992. South Africa won the first international matches and its national team became adored as Bafana Bafana (‘The Boys’). Huge waves of support rippled across the country, and a culture was born. In May 1994, on the very day of his inauguration as President, Nelson Mandela significantly broke away from official celebrations to join an 80,000 crowd at a friendly match between South Africa and Zambia at Ellis Park Stadium. South Africa won 2-1. Within a year, Orlando Pirates had won the African Champions Cup and in 1996 South Africa hosted and won the African Cup of Nations. | ||
 |
||
| The New Soccer Generation | ||
| Behind the triumphant headlines, SAFA has diligently created a muscular structure for the game at grass roots, establishing nine provincial affiliates, further divided into 25 regions, nurturing newly qualified coaches nationwide, creating a national academy, running age-group tournaments from under-12 upwards. Today, Molefi Oliphant, serving as the fourth SAFA President after Mluleki George, Lesole Gadinabokao and Solomon Morewa, heads a democratically elected 21-man Executive and a large staff charged with the task of realising football’s vast potential in South Africa. Calm and confident, South African football prepared to host the greatest event in the game, to stage the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. Roared on by one united nation, SAFA was bidding for that opportunity – and won! | ||
 |
||
| The Winner is South Africa | ||
| In Zurich on 15 May, 2004 the FIFA Executive Committee declared South Africa as winner to host the 2010 Football World Cup finals, leading to spontaneous joy and celebrations in the country. Celebrations broke loose in all major cities and towns and South African flags were waving in every township. In Zurich, the heavyweights of the South African delegation - ex-President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu - immediately erupted into joyful celebrations. Also in Pretoria, returned President Thabo Mbeki ignored procedure and security advisors and joined the singing and dancing crowds on the streets. South Africa as winner had received 14 votes after only one round of voting, while, Morocco had received 10 votes and Egypt none. Tunisia had already been disqualified over its plans to co-host the Cup with Libya. | ||
 |
||
| Sourcing New Talents | ||
| A programme running since February 2005 - dubbed "Wonke-Wonke" (meaning "everyone") - has been scouring the remotest parts of South Africa to unearth talent for the team that will represent the country when it plays host to football's greatest spectacle, the 2010 World Cup. A parallel programme is focusing on known professional players currently participating in either the Premier Soccer League, the Mvela League, or playing abroad. Selected amateur players will join up with identified professional players in what promises to be a formidable pool of 60 under-23 players. From this pool, SA's national under-23 side will be selected for the 2007 All Africa Games qualifiers, the 2008 Olympics qualifiers, and the Beijing Olympics. Programme director Barney Kujane says the programme has already achieved "remarkable results" in identifying talent. "We made sure we covered the remotest parts of South Africa to come up with the players who are participating in the 2010 tournament," Kujane said. | ||
 |
||
