The South African Football Association (Safa) could not shed light on an embarrassing situation after youth players who left their schools to join the Safa Boys High Performance Academy were left stranded.
Last month, Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao wrote a letter to Safa regions, concerned parents, coaches and the relevant schools, explaining that the young school boys who were identified and scouted to join the academy had to return to their original schools for the remainder of this year.
The parents were up in arms with their children getting stranded after they had taken “remove letters” from their schools. The school’s second term were about to start when Safa took the decisions to postpone the intake to next year.
It is alleged that the cancellations for this year were due to a lack of funds from the national association. The academy was supposed to have been accommodated at the Safa Technical Centre in Fun Valley, south of Johannesburg.
“The Safa Boys High Performance Academy, which was scheduled to open its doors at the beginning of the 2024 academic year, will only commence with its new intakes in 2025,” read part of the letter Sunday World has seen.
“This is based on the funding and logistical implementation that has been delayed pending approval by the Fifa development committee and advisory board. We therefore appeal to all players who had been selected to join the Boys Academy this year to return to their original schools for the remainder of the year. Safa, through the technical director’s office, will arrange a meeting to communicate the next steps with all concerned individuals. We sincerely apologise for this delay in starting the project this year – we are as disappointed in this delay as we believe you all are. We thank you kindly in advance for your anticipated support in this matter.”
In order to save face, Safa consulted the High Performance Centre in Pretoria to place the pupils but they did not reach common ground, with the state of the art institution that is housing the SA girls Under-17 team.
The boys’ academy project was going to be overseen by Safa’s technical director Walter Steenbok, who is alleged to have sourced funds from world football mother body Fifa. The coaches who did the scouting are former Bafana Bafana captain Aaron “Mbazo” Mokoena and the legendary David Nyathi.
Steenbok did not respond to questions sent by Sunday World to provide clarity on the matter. CEO Monyepao was also not available to comment.
