Nationwide rollout of SAFA’s registration and competition system, MYSAFA, officially kicked off in Nelson Mandela Bay this past weekend, with three SAFA Eastern Cape regions attending a training workshop at the offices of SAFA’s technology provider, Inqaku FC.

A player ID card created by the MYSAFA registration system

The SAFA Digital-led project was piloted in NMB beginning in February.  All SAFA NMB women’s regional league and senior men’s premier league teams have been registered and cards printed – over 300 teams in total.

A total of 10 administrators from SAFA Buffalo City, Amathole and Sarah Baartman regions were schooled in club and league setup, player registration and approvals. SAFA Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary Isaac Klaas, was also in attendance for day one of the two day seminar.

“This is such an important project for the association,” said SAFA Buffalo City Region President Mxolisi Sibam, who attended both days. “In addition to fighting many forms of age cheating this system will eventually allow us to see a player’s history.  Too often players seem to be born at age 20 in South Africa.  We have no way to see who and where a player was developed and give credit where it is due.  A system like this is essential for identifying and developing talent from a young age and we are very excited to be the first province using it.”

Nkosinathi Faaltein, SAFA Nelson Mandela Bay Regional Executive Officer, is also convinced of the system’s worth. “We have been pleased with the MYSAFA system so far”, Faaltein said.  “It is in its early stages but already you can see how it will benefit the association in many ways.  Having a true web-based system for the first time means that LFAs can be connected and empowered to do their own registration data entry.  It also fights many forms of cheating and has significantly lowered our card printing costs.”

“Once you start using it, there is no going back to the old methods of registering players,” Faaltein continued. “The quality of the card gives confidence to the user and the introduction of the verifier app is also a significant advancement. The process of registering a player is made so simple that we can see that in the near future it will be feasible for a player to [re-] register him or herself.”

Learners from three SAFA Eastern Cape regions attending MYSAFA training

Rollout will continue in the Eastern Cape in the coming weeks, and continuing at the Regional Executive Officer conference tentatively scheduled for late July in Johannesburg.

“We are confident we have developed a world-class system,” said Jason Anderson, head of SAFA Digital.  “MYSAFA player registration features are live today and our league management features are scheduled for release in August.  It includes innovative features such as the MYSAFA Verifier app and home affairs interface, allowing us to verify players’ ID numbers and personal details at the time of registration.  The days of playing for more than one club or using forged id documents will soon come to an end in South Africa.”

For more information on MYSAFA or other SAFA Digital initiatives, contact Jason Anderson (jason@safadigital.net)

https://www.mywww.safa.net