What we must do with our football windfall

SOUTH African football is about to receive a once-in-a-lifetime windfall because this country has hosted one of the most financially successful World Cups ever.
As much as US $200 million – some R2 billion – will be paid to the local federation by Fifa.
The South African public has paid — via taxes — for the infrastructure that made this windfall possible and any money made out of the tournament ought to spent on developing the game on behalf of the public.
There are reasonable fears that this money might, like so many cash injections before it, not find its way to the development of the beautiful game in South Africa.
We should take a leaf out of the US book and turn this windfall into the engine that grows our competitive potential.
The US placed the money it was paid after hosting the cup in 1994 into an independently administered trust that has focussed on developing the game over the last 16 years.
In 1990, it qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years. “Since then it has risen to the top of CONCACAF — its regional association — qualified for six consecutive World Cups, established a league and exported players to European first division clubs, writes Michael Lewis in a fascinating account of that country’s development programme.
The goal was to vastly increase formal competitive participation in the sport feeding an increasingly competitive national side.
The money has also notably been used to develop the US women’s football team into a formidable global force.
That the US yesterday played Ghana in the second round of World Cup 2010 is in no small part due to this prudent investment in growing the game.
South Africa could easily do the same by creating an independently administered trust which accounts to the public for every cent of its expenditure.
The certainty that their money would go directly to development and not into ridiculous “bonus” payments for football’s fat cats, would encourage local businesses to contribute to the trust.
The fact is that the World Cup has captured the South African imagination and every child wants to play the game.
If we don’t invest in playing fields, coaches and formal training programmes, these youngsters will not be developed into the winning generation of players that we need to build our national sport.
But there are real obstacles to what would seem to be a simple, straightforward proposal which enjoys the support of several senior administrators.
The first is the parlous state of local soccer administration which appears to spend a disproportionate amount of its time discussing what size bonuses to award itself.
Although there were signs of a revival under the new boss, Kirsten Nematandani, it is highly likely that Safa will resist the idea of placing control of our World Cup windfall in independent hands.
But the public must demand this. It’s time this country got the football development it deserves.