This announcement was made during the sitting of the provincial cabinet in Pietermaritzburg.
Cabinet has authorized the provincial government to make a financial contribution of *R10 million, excl. VAT on an annual basis for a period of three years* towards the construction and management of the Sports Development Centre and International Football Academy.
The amounts will increase year on year (if there has been an increase) in the consumer price index (i.e. the official inflation rate).
According to Mchunu, the provincial government is in search of the world’s best practices in improving the quality of football.
“It is for these reasons that we are teaming up with eThekwini Municipality, IEC Sports International and the South African Football Association to develop this state-of-the-art and high performance facility that will unleash a new generation of sports stars.”
“Following the successful hosting of Fifa World Cup in 2010, the provincial government has been engaging role-players in sports and big business as part of our efforts aimed at using soccer as a tool for addressing socio-economic challenges.”
“The academic will provide well-designed sport and physical activity programs which will serve as powerful tools for fostering healthy and personal development of young stars. It will teach positive values and life skills ensuring that our future sports stars become role-models.”
“The Sports Development Centre, situated in the heart of Durban at Hoy Park, will become a flagship of youth sporting development for South Africa. Over and above being a nursery for football development, the Centre will look to become an International High Performance Training Centre for other sporting codes, which will be utilised by Local, National and International Teams and individual sports persons.”
“The KwaZulu-Natal Province is blessed with a number of existing Tourist attractions, that includes its year round mild weather conditions; Beaches; Safaris; the Drakensberg; Battlefields; Elephant Coast; Hotels, together with world class sporting facilities, like the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium.”
“The Development Centre will add to the already established Tourism market and offer Durban Tourism and Tourism KwaZulu-Natal another opportunity to attract National and International Sports Tourists to visit the Province by becoming a prime destination for football clubs (and other sporting codes) from around the world. They will utilise the Centre for their pre-season and in-season training camps, thus helping to boost the economy of the Province.”
“Upon analysing football statistics on a regional, national and International basis, it is evident that currently, there is a lack of structured youth development in South Africa. In the last few years, development in our country has focused mainly at the U20 age group. This has led to the conclusion that this late approach to youth development is causing an inevitable gap in the quality of South African football players, in comparison to their international counterparts.
“The proposed solution is the establishment of a fully-fledged “Football Academy” that would facilitate the proficient and progressive development of young players.
The Academy will facilitate player recruitment, development and management at an international standard, from U13 to U19, offering a substantial legacy that can be taken forward and grown outside of the Sports Development Centre.”
