Grassroots Football Festival

The SAFA Eden region, in the Western Cape, will host its first ever SAFA Grassroots and Live Your Goals Football Festival.

The SAFA Eden region, in the Western Cape, will host its first ever SAFA Grassroots and Live Your Goals Football Festival.

The event will take place in Mossel Bay at Mossgas Stadium in Ext 23 on Saturday, 25 February 2017 starting at 08h30 until 12h30.

After a week of training, coaches will impart their knowledge to about 200 children from neighbouring schools during the football festival.

The invited schools are Imekhaya Primary, Isalathiso Primary, St Blaze Primary and Erika Primary – all from Mossel Bay.

Under the watchful eye of SAFA Instructor, Boebie Williams and trainee instructor Maud Khumalo (Banyana Banyana Assistant Coach), the coaches were taught the folllowing, among other things:

  • Grassroots Philosophy
  • Characteristics of Children
  • Methodology of coaching
  • Small Sided Games and the Laws thereof
  • Organisation of a children’s tournament/mini football festival
  • Basic Football skills – Technique, Coordinaiton, Agility and Motor Skills

The coaches also spent most of their time outdoors on the fields doing practical work to ensure they are ready for the football festival.

Grassroots is an activity for children between the ages of six and 12 where they are basically introduced to the game at a very early age.

The South African Football Association (SAFA) has been running this programme for a couple of years around the country and these are held a few months apart.

The Live Your Goals programme is very similar to Grassroots, but it focuses on girls.

It is a FIFA-sanctioned project that was launched at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011.

The main objectives of the programme are to increase participation of girls and women in football; to increase the popularity of women’s football locally, nationally and globally; to spark, foster and generate excitement about women’s fooball and also to create the best platforms for women’s football to thrive, with more females becoming lifelong participants in the sport.