More than just a game
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 06:13AM For the 2010 World Cup™ Organising Committee (OC), the legacy of the World Cup must speak to the very heart of football in South Africa, and acknowledge that for many communities around the country, it is more than just a game.
Across South Africa are hubs of excitement clustered around football ‘pitches’ of dirt, cow dung and dust. You have to be tough to play on one of these fields, tougher to play without shoes and the toughest of them all to carry on playing when you fall hard.
“You can get hurt very badly” says football player Mduso Dlamini “I hurt my knee, they wanted to send me to hospital but I said no. It’s hard to play [on this ground] but I’m used to it. Of course, grass will be better.”
Dlamini plays in the U15 league in the Umzimkhulu District in Kwa-Zulu Natal. His team is one of up to 60 teams that play weekly on the makeshift football fields on the uneven rocky grounds of the Umzimkhulu college, which nestles in the majestic foothills of the Drakensburg mountains. It is here that the OC plans to build an artificial football pitch which will transform Dlamini and his team’s football experience for ever.
With a commitment from FIFA to provide the necessary training for the management and maintenance of the artificial turf, the Umzimkhulu District will benefit from a state of the art football pitch that is low on maintenance, resistant to harsh climatic conditions like rain and snow, and will offer improved consistent playing conditions all year round.
“A new pitch will have a great impact because some of the good teams around Kwa-Zulu Natal will be able to play here, like Pietermaritzburg United. Our boys will get exposure. We cannot afford to travel to them, and [currently] they won’t visit us because of our fields” says coach Thozamile Luganyeni of the Umzimkhulu District, “Football means a lot to this community. It is the life of the community. It is the only sports club that we have”.
Along with the artificial pitch, there are also plans to develop a club house with dressing rooms and a management office with space for community gatherings and lectures and even a computer centre. The legacy of this project is to develop a space where football is a catalyst for community growth through ownership and participation at all levels, and in branching activities. Part of the big dream would be for football legends and positive role models to partner with the club, and assist with the training of the younger teams, and for projects such as 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Youth Zone: Legacy Network to be integrated.
The Youth Zone: Legacy Network is a partnership between the Foundation for a Safe South Africa (FSSA) and the OC that has recently received funding of R6 million from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to implement a programme designed to get the youth connected.
The philosophy of the programme is to prevent the youth from turning to crime through isolation and boredom by not only developing their football game, but teaching them life skills and self – esteem, and computer interconnectivity. These three pillars of social cohesion are then supported by programmes chosen by the community themselves and can range from introducing netball, community policing, entrepreneurship, language interventions or HIV/Aids education.
“Everything we do here is about relationships,” says Schalk van Heerden Project Co-Ordinator FSSA who explains that such an intervention can only be sustained through understanding a community’s needs and partnering with them in the interest of having a positive impact. “It must be organic and grow like a tree by starting small and seeing how things develop. The structure of this programme is not rigid and it focuses on holistic integration. So with football, you have education and skills development.”
The Youth Zones are also dedicated to getting the youth connected online so that eventually, a sustainable cross-cultural network across many communities will exist. Through this, they will be able to help one another in building empowering societies through sharing, learning and interacting in a safe environment.
Umzimkhulu is not the only district which is set to benefit from the World Cup. The OC plans to build 52 Football Turfs in South Africa - one in each SAFA region - with a cost of some R3 million per site. These sites will have a rural bias, and also look at schools and areas that have some existing infrastructure. For now, only nine sites have been identified, one in each province, for development through funding from the National Lottery, and further funding is sought to leave one of the most tangible legacies of the FIFA World Cup.
South Africans should feel that they have gained from the World Cup experience. “It would be a tragedy and a travesty for this World Cup not to leave a legacy not only for football but also for the communities that love and support the game,” says Greg Fredericks, Head of Legacy at the OC.
For players like Dlamini, and many others who share football boots, team clothes and practice with balls made out of plastic, the beautiful game promises to go on a long time after the world’s greatest team will be crowned world champions at Africa’s first World Cup.
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