The South African Football Association (SAFA) in close partnership with its partners, the South African Breweries (SAB) recently held the SAB League Skills Camp where coaches, match officials and administrators were upskilled in their various capacities.

As part of the course, 56 Administrators across the different SAFA regions attended a Sports Administration course and amongst other things, the course empowered the regional administrators with various skills such as financial management, event management as well as health and safety.

SAFA.online recently caught up with SAFA’s Regional Coordinator from the John Taelo region in the Northern Cape, Neo Booysen to find out what he has been up to since completing his Sports Administration course.

SAFA.net: What have you been up to since graduating from the Sports Administration course from SAFA?

Neo Booysen: Firstly, I would like to thank SAFA and SAB for organising such a course for us. A certificate in sports administration is a major confidence booster for someone who is as passionate as me. Since graduating from the course, my work as an administrator has improved tremendously. In fact, I have been receiving some good feedback from the clubs and officials on the efficiencies that they are seeing in how our region is being run. I am currently pursuing my diploma in Sports Administration through UNISA and hoping to become an even better football administrator for the benefit of South African football.

SAFA.net: Tell us about the sort of skills that you acquired from the course?

NB: There are various challenges one encounters in football administration with major problems being communication and management of different teams. This is something that we took a lot of time discussing at the course and had different types of exercises that assisted us on how to better manage such problems. My reporting and coordination of the league has truly improved and I really must thank SAFA and SAB for this.

SAFA.net: What is the one thing that you feel you are implementing the most that you got out of the course?

NB: It is quite difficult to single out a particular thing after getting so much knowledge but one thing that has truly stood out since graduating is my ability to anticipate things that could possibly go wrong if not attended to. For instance, unnecessary fixture breaks can prolong a season and this has a ripple effect on a number of things.

I am proud of the fact that I now have the ability to develop better reporting with new and easy to understand templates that make football administration much easier.

Communication with the teams is now better and more efficient which has previously been a problem.

SAFA.net: What are your future aspirations as a football administrator?

NB: Serving football at amateur level is such a fulfilling prospect since you are exposed to the future talent of the country in its earliest stages. There are a number of quality professional footballers which we see every day who once played under out leagues. This is why I want to continue in my football administration career and continue playing a critical role in helping young players, coaches and referees unleash the full potential and improve the standard of football in the country.

SAFA.net: Neo thank you so much and we wish you nothing but the best of luck in your future endeavours.

NB: Thank you very much and thanks once again to SAFA and SAB for the great work that they continue doing for football development.