Currently 2% of all football players registered with FIFA now come from South Africa thanks to MYSAFA, a joint initiative between SAFA and Inqaku, a South African based software company and FSP.

FIFA has the ambition to register all football players, over the age of 12, around the world. The purpose is to fight age cheating, prevent the illegal transfer of players (especially children) across borders and to ensure that developing clubs are compensated whenever the players they develop turn professional.

MYSAFA is a globally leading initiative that gives SAFA the best tool against age cheating and is expected to ensure hundreds of millions of Rands from FIFA Training Compensation will flow into South African football.

“MYSAFA has been used to register 700,000 players and 18,000 clubs with FIFA IDs. That makes SAFA the log-leader Africa, and one of the global leaders, in terms of adoption and managing player registrations,” said Jason Anderson, Inqaku COO. “To handle this volume we have a highly-committed team of development and support staff.”

One of the reasons MYSAFA is so far ahead of most of the world is its club self-registration features. Much of the tedious work of scanning and uploading a player’s documents and photos is now done by club admins from the comfort of their home or office. Player identities and age are checked with Home Affairs and their documents reviewed by SAFA administrators before their registrations is approved (or rejected). This approach saves time and cuts transport and travel costs for clubs while creating much-needed capacity to register more players. 

“This approach has put SAFA on the path to becoming one of the first FIFA Member Associations that can boast of registering all players, effectively fighting age-cheating and enabling all clubs of any size to protect their investment in players. It also gives SAFA more control, transparency and data-driven insight.” added Anderson.

In addition to providing world-class software for football, Inqaku has the dream of unlocking the buying power of football and using technology to transform amateur clubs into sustainable businesses. Inqaku is so committed to this dream that the MYSAFA platform is provided to SAFA for free and Inqaku pays SAFA 50% of the profit for the platform.

To further improve football, Inqaku recently introduced Inqaku Funeral Insurance, which is competitively priced and flexible, and rewards the clubs that refers the sale an amount equal to 10% of the premium each month. 

“Why buy your insurance from your bank, who you know doesn’t give back to your community, when you can purchase the similar cover but it rewards your football club? asked Anderson.

Inqaku also launched an initiate to sponsor kit to 200 teams across South Africa. Damane Themba of Young Stars FC, affiliated at Matzikama LFA in the Western Cape, was one of the early recipients of the Inqaku kit.

“When the delivery finally happened it took me some time to believe my eyes. Did this really happen or am I am dreaming,” said Themba. “The team is so excited! Our team is supported by one very generous man but even he is not working. We never thought we would ever have such beautiful kit but because of Inqaku, we finally have it. Thank you Inqaku!”

Inqaku is an authorized FSP. Inqaku Funeral Insurance is underwritten by Old Mutual Alternative Risk Transfer Limited (OMART), a licensed life insurer under the Insurance Act (IA). T&C’s apply. Please visit inqakulife.com for more information, T&Cs and claims policy. 

Clubs interested in the kit sponsorship can contact Inqaku over email ( support@inqaku.com ) and WhatsApp ( +27 76 340 8506 ).