2 April 2019 – One of the biggest goals for football associations around Africa, and of course the rest of the world is to have raw talent identified early and for this talent to get exported and recognized in big leagues across the world.
South Africa may soon realise this objective through the hard work being done on its technological innovation of a reliable and functional player registration system.
MYSAFA, which is benchmarked with the system applied in Germany, not only puts the spotlight on talent at South Africa’s disposal, it also makes it easier for scouts to identify possible recruits while giving national team coaches a reliable pool of talent to look into.
Officially launched in February 2017, MYSAFA which also doubles up as a public site for all SAFA leagues, has gradually changed the face of football development in the country.
The FIFA approved system has successfully given the South African Football Association (SAFA) a chance to unearth the next Percy Tau at an even younger age and ensure that such talent is nurtured in its earliest stages of development.
As things stand, a total of 227178 aspiring male and female professionals have been registered onto MYSAFA with the numbers gradually increasing on a daily basis as more clubs make use of the system.
The KwaZulu-Natal province currently leads in terms of number of registered players.
A total of 51 777 footballers from KZN are officially registered on MYSAFA and this has greatly assisted the province improve its administration of the league according to the province’s Provincial Secretary, Zakes Gwala.
“The system has not only benefitted KZN but the whole of South Africa. Players are no longer able to play for different clubs and leagues like they used to in the past where it was very difficult to monitor. Through the use of MYSAFA, we have been able to stop such behaviour and encouraged the FIFA spirit of fair play” said an elated Gwala.
“The issue of age cheating is also being dealt with because the system works closely with the Department of Home Affairs, making it very difficult for a player to lie about his or her identity”
While registering over 200000 players is something to be proud of, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that all footballers, both amateur and professional are registered onto the system. This is according to the Association’s acting CEO, Mr Russell Paul.
“The various provinces have been quite receptive to the system with the KZN province being the leading province in so far as registrations are concerned. We are aggressively putting in more effort into ensuring that the Local Football Associations are making use of the system. Most footballers start their playing careers at this level, and it is highly important that all our LFAs register their players onto MYSAFA” said Paul.
With the Sasol Women’s League officially in motion and the country eagerly awaiting the much anticipated SAFA National Women’s League, the MYSAFA public site will be the official go to place for all matters relating to women’s football in South Africa.
LFAs, coaches and clubs interested in finding out more about this ground-breaking initiative are invited to get in touch with the Inqaku office head office on 041 583 1932 where a team of dedicated experts will be on hand to assist. Alternatively, football followers can visit the official MYSAFA Facebook page for further information.