Lenasia Soccer League

Soccer is the world’s leading sport. The game provides a healthy, enjoyable outlet for children and adults all over the world. Soccer is a central part of sporting culture and should play a vital role in developing individuals in achieving local, regional, provincial and international success.

Government policy has increasingly recognized the importance of sport to social, cultural, economic and educational progress.

While much progress has been made in developing the game in this country to date, there is a growing recognition that the soccer governing body SAFA needs to proactively reform the way in which soccer is developed and managed.

The need for a new direction is highlighted in the Media daily, which calls for a complete new set of Executive members to take the organization forward. Has sufficient/significant progress been made in the implementation of the Pickard and Motimela report particularly in relation to the governance of the organization?

Developments at local, district, regional and provincial level also reinforce the need for changes in the way the game is organized in this country. “UEFA has recently signalled the importance of developing grass roots football in a planned and systematic way”.

There has never been to our knowledge a clear and concise plan to meet the needs of players at each stage of their development and this has led to a lack of quality playing and coaching opportunities within the game in comparison with other developed football areas. While interest in playing the game has grown dramatically, the structures required to sustain this interest are not fully in place. This has led to a situation where certain clubs are still struggling to find opportunities to play the game at their own level.

On the international stage individual youth teams and national youth teams from South Africa have achieved many great results and performances over the years but in order to achieve this success the game must be developed in line with international best practice where the leading nations have through their relevant Football Associations integrated the development of players into their overall thinking, practice, philosophy and structure.

The next step, therefore, must be to ensure that the game is developed on a technically sound basis. This essential phase in the development of the players in the Lenasia Soccer League here after referred to as the LSL must take full account of the needs of players at each phase of their development.

There is a need for a clear, agreed plan which provides a defined set of objectives for the development of the game and players which outlines a clear program of action. The identification of who is responsible for implementing these actions needs to be determined and realistic timescales for their implementation must be outlined.
The delivery and implementation of the plan will provide a sound philosophy and framework to guide decision making at all levels of the game and within the LSL.