The South African Football Association (Safa) launched the Safa Clive Barker Academy on Thursday in honour of the fallen legend, Clive Barker, who guided Bafana Bafana to Africa Cup of Nations glory in 1996.
Safa vice president Linda Zwane opened the proceedings by addressing the main area of the national association’s vision, which is developing football in the country.
“We are pushing two main agendas – being women’s football and youth football. It is critical that in line with these two agendas, our coaches are educated and skilled to be able to meet the international standards of these areas of football, and today’s launch speaks about that,’’ said Zwane.
Safa Technical Committee chairperson Jack Maluleka paid tribute to the much-loved Africa Cup of Nations-winning coach, who passed away in June after a brave battle with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD).
SAFA Technical Director Walter Steenbok detailed the mission of the Clive Barker Academy and announced that the association would once again host CAF A License diploma courses. The first CAF A License Course will be held in November.
“We are excited to announce the Clive Barker Academy and have already outlined some of the courses that will be offered from 2024. We as the South African Football Association have a responsibility to educate and uplift our coaches, who will in return elevate our football as a nation,” Steenbok was quoted by Safa media.
“We will be offering a number of different courses under the Clive Barker Academy, and we are open to working with stakeholders and institutions from South Africa and abroad to capitalize on the initiative in order to grow our football.
“The Technical side of football is very interesting and modern football allows for specialists in many different aspects of the technical department. In modern football, one can become a technical director, a performance analyst, a scout, youth coach/scout and many other areas. The Safa Clive Barker Academy will focus on areas such as these to train our up and coming coaches,” concluded Steenbok.
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