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A multimillion rand sponsorship has been
announced for the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup over the next five years. The competition
will help young talent.
ONE high school football team in
Johannesburg stands a chance to pocket a whopping R1-million - that is, if they
manage to beat about 4 000 other teams from around the country for top spot in
this year's Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup.
'We are confident that the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup will contribute towards developing future Bafana Bafana stars,' says foundation chairman, Patrice Motsepe
Launching the annual schools football
tournament in Sandton on Thursday, 4 February, Patrice Motsepe, the chairman of
the Kay Motsepe Foundation, said high school teams from "expensive schools" would
vie for the top prize with schools from townships later this month.
A mouth-watering R600 000 would go to
the second best team, with the third and fourth teams pocketing R500 000
and R400 000 respectively.
The launch was attended by King Goodwill
Zwelithini; the Gauteng MEC for sports, Nelisiwe Mbatha-Mthimkhulu; and the president
of the South African Football Federation, Kirsten Nematandani, among other
dignitaries. A staggering R30-million sponsorship of the tournament over the
next five years was announced at the event, the biggest sponsorship in the
history of South African schools football, according to Motsepe.
"The annual prize money of R3,4-million
will be used to improve the educational facilities and develop football at the
winning schools ... We are confident that the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Schools Cup
will contribute towards developing future Bafana Bafana stars and ensuring that
South African football is among the best in Africa and the world."
Centre of excellence
He said the reason for pumping so much money into the tournament was to turn
every school in the townships into "centres of football excellence". "We want
people to take this schools tournament very seriously."
Founded in 2004 and named after the
financial services group, Sanlam, and Motsepe's late mother, Kay, the Sanlam
Kay Motsepe Cup has grown to become one of the country's leading high school
football tournaments. The cup, which licks off on 20 February, will involve
more than 4 000 schools from all nine provinces, competing on a regional,
provincial and national basis.
The nine provincial winners will each
receive R100 000. The two top schools from each province will then
participate in a four-day competition after the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ to
determine the winner of the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup.
The Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini offers the young footballers some sage advice
Motsepe also announced that soccer legends -
those South African heroes of football who mesmerised fans with their dribbling
skills in the1960s and 1970s - would also receive a R1-million sponsorship to
help develop young football talent.
"The things that they [the legends] used to
do with the ball were amazing. This they must pass on to youngsters." To
achieve this, Motsepe said each school in the country would be linked to a
football legend, just like what rugby had been doing all along.
No mischief
Speaking to the schoolboys from various schools who attended the launch, the
Zulu monarch said the tournament meant there would no longer be any shortage of
strikers for Bafana Bafana. It would also provide the youngsters with a healthy and positive outlet.
"You youths of today are lucky. This
tournament brings a lot of teachings to you, especially about respect - respect
for your bodies and respect for your elders. If you respect what you do, you
will go far," he said.
Mbatha-Mthimkhulu said Gauteng would make
sure the cup stayed in the "province of champions". There were 51 sports hubs
in the province committed to sporting excellence, she pointed out. "It all
starts here and it's going to end here," she said, referring to the competition.
The tournament would also precipitate the re-introduction
of Football Wednesdays in schools, said one soccer legend, Mandla "Shoes"
Mazibuko.
"We are going to use this event [the Sanlam
Kay Motsepe Cup] to ensure we have our Football Wednesdays in schools. This is
a dawn of a new era in schools and we will make sure we don't let the sponsors
down," said Mazibuko, who is the president of the South African Schools
Football Association (Sasfa).
Because of the amount of money involved,
Mazibuko called for schools to exercise integrity during the tournament and not
register under- or over-age players. "This tournament is for schoolboys between
specific ages. From this year, we will be using the tournament to spot football
talent for the 2014 World Cup."
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