Soccer development is an important legacy of the mega event that was the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup

 Breaking the corruptive shackles of nepotism on South African soccer, breaking into the hearts and minds of the rugby-dominated white Afrikaner school-boy system, and breaking into the top-40 soccer nations in the world are part and parcel of the long-term goals of the South African Football Association (SAFA).

 SAFA wants to invest the funds of between $80-100 million provided by the world governing body Fifa after the 2010 Soccer World Cup, to realise these dreams.

 But in order for South Africa to reach the pinnacle of the sport in 2022, as envisaged by its management team, SAFA wants to lay the foundations through a wide-ranging development project reaching South Africans from Bellville to Bethuli, from Simon’s Town to Soweto.

 Herman Steyn, professor in Project Management at Pretoria University and editor of the book Project Management, A Multi-Disciplinary Approach, says that to realise those dreams, one needs to develop an overall plan for the next five years.

 Such a plan can be sketchy at first.

 That plan should provide a framework that defines each phase of the project.

 Ultimately, a plan without a process, implementation deadlines and people taking responsibility for the execution of those plans, may not succeed.

 Moving the goalposts

 Kirsten Nematandani, president of SAFA, said that shortly after he was elected in September 2009, he made a commitment that he would ensure the World Cup profits would be used for the development of the game, and would not be distributed to certain members and individuals.

 “We also pledge to establish a culture of accountability and to rid SAFA of the nepotism and cronyism which had established itself at the highest levels of football,” he said.

 One of the goals set for SAFA by technical director Serame Letsoaka is that if SAFA follows the developmental road map, it is confident it will break into the top-40 nations of Fifa.

 “It is a tall order, but it’s a goal well worth pursuing. Remember that we’ve moved to the 66th spot, from the 83rd position we occupied before the World Cup began,” said Nematandani.

 “According to Letsoaka’s projections, we should play in the World Cup finals in 2022. Some people may think that we are silly and getting far ahead of ourselves, but we can dream and push toward that dream.

 “We want to be the leading soccer nation in Africa and the first African national team to play in the match to decide world football’s richest prize,” he told The Project Manager magazine.

 Challenges

 As a country, South Africa was a proud and efficient host of an overwhelmingly successful Fifa Soccer World Cup.

 But in spite of performing admirably in dismantling the ninth seed France in the final group encounter, the national team ultimately failed to make it past the first round – the first host unable to reach the second round.

 Around $80-100 million will be given to the country by Fifa to develop the game.

 The details of structuring this development programme will be divulged at a later stage.

 Danny Jordaan, chief executive officer of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, told The New York Times: “The way we can sustain national support is to get a winning team. It’s as simple as that and as difficult as that. Get a winning national team, and you will have national support. No one is going to celebrate defeat.”

 South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) has the seventh-richest television contract in the world. The issue troubling South Africa is that the PSL teams lack properly funded academies to develop the young talent coming through.

 In addition, the league has a difficult time attracting players from other African nations.

 With the better leagues’ setup elsewhere on the continent, and the strong financial pull of Europe, the problem will only become worse unless the infrastructure in South African soccer improves.

 Commitment to change league structure

 Nematandani told The Project Manager that the national coach Pitso Mosimane recommended that PSL teams should use a maximum of three foreign players. He maintained that PSL teams must agree on fielding at least two under-23 players in their starting line-up.

 “We will also establish and regulate a coaching licensing system in South Africa. We will also strive to ensure that all clubs have junior teams and leagues,” said Nematandani.

 “We will also implement a three-tier academy structure that will comprise a national academy, provincial academies and a PSL academy.”

 He further urged South Africa to develop a common soccer identity and style. “We cannot have one national junior team playing one style, and another playing a different formation. Getting players who represent South Africa used to one brand of football will ensure continuity.

 “Just look what this uniform brand of football did for Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. If it worked for them, it can and should work for us.”

 A developmental road map

 SAFA is committed to continue progress for the nation’s youth, and in turn its soccer development, through the 1GOAL: Education for All campaign.

 This campaign is aimed at using soccer to ensure that education is available for everyone in the world. Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Queen Rania of Jordan established the campaign, and they hope it makes a lasting impact long after the World Cup.

 Nematandani said SAFA will lay artificial turfs in 27 SAFA regions. These regions are situated mainly in the rural areas.

 “To realise our dreams, it’s essential that we start building for the future. We’re starting to get our development house in order, with an intervention at the foundation level,” he told The Project Manager.

 Together with Fifa, the South African association launched the Grassroots programme. The national departments of Sport and Recreation, Health and Education are also involved.

 This programme concentrates on the 6-to-12 age group. Two camps were held in May, before the World Cup began: one in Pretoria and one in Mafikeng. The attendance was encouraging. SAFA will organise more of these camps around the country shortly.

 The emphasis at these camps is placed on teaching ball skills and fair play. SAFA imparts these skills in a non-competitive environment because the association is not as interested in winning as in teaching skills and encouraging young players to explore what they can do with the ball in different situations.

 Later, when they have moved to the 14 age group, SAFA will bring in the competitive element. Then the players will be ready and better equipped to play competitive football.

 This intervention will ensure that SAFA fields a steady stream of skilled and disciplined young players in South African football.

 Through the Grassroots programme, SAFA wants to inculcate social and nation-building values such as respect, discipline, democracy, transparency, playing to the laws of the game, team spirit and non-discrimination.

 “At schoolboy level, we want to encourage so-called rugby-playing schools to introduce football and to let the children decide if they want to play football or rugby,” said Nematandani.

 “If you’ve read the Afrikaans press, you would have noticed that quite a few people have written to newspapers asking that football be introduced at schools. We’re excited by this.

 “We intend having discussions with national ministers of Sport, Education, Health and Public Works to explore how we can take football to as many schools as possible,” he added.

 In years gone by, football games at mainly black schools drew big crowds. Some of that passion is gone. SAFA wants to see a revival of that spirit.

 Nematandani wants SAFA to take a leaf from the book of rugby-playing white schools. They are doing something right because they draw big crowds, sometimes bigger than at PSL games. SAFA wants to learn from these schools and implement some of the ideas that worked for them, he claims.

 With regard to youth and school development, the SAFA president said there was a need to identify football schools.

 Coaches who had the right qualifications must be employed at this level.

 In addition, it was felt that SAFA should concentrate on having a school league as opposed to school tournaments. A league structure for all age groups should be set up in order to avoid cheating.

 Working the plan

 Prof. Steyn told The Project Manager that an overall plan for the next five years should be developed to implement the SAFA dreams. Such a plan can obviously not be in great detail and more detailed plans should be developed for each phase of the project.

 Initiation of the project should include some upfront authorisation of the project, in principle a project charter would be required to ensure participants that the project is real and that it is worth spending time on the development of a plan.

 The overall plan of the project should provide a framework that defines the phases of the project, what each phase should deliver, when each phase would be completed, and what the cost of each phase should be.

 It should further indicate who would approve or accept the deliverables of each phase.

 At the end of each phase, a detailed plan for the subsequent phase should be presented to the main stakeholders for authorisation of the work that is to follow, said Prof. Steyn. (Additional source: Project Management, A Multi-Disciplinary Approach).

 Guidelines

 To ensure effective delivery of the project, the principles for developing such plans should be followed. These guidelines include the defining of the scope of the project.

 It is essential that the scope of the overall project is discussed with all the relevant stakeholders and that consensus is reached about the deliverables and all other main issues, said Prof. Steyn.

 The scope statement should be formally approved by the main stakeholders and they should formally approve any later changes to the scope statement.

 The work, responsibility and roles should be identified.

 A work breakdown structure should be developed to define sub-projects and work packages.

 Roles and responsibilities can be defined by means of a responsibility assignment matrix.

 Work scheduling

 Suitable software should be used for detailed scheduling of activities. Typically, a detailed network diagram and Gantt chart will be developed for work to be performed in each phase

 A bottom-up process should be followed to roll up estimate costs of activities in order to determine the cost of each phase of the work. And to ensure that it is within the constraints of the overall plan.

 Controlling the work is only possible if sufficient planning is done.

 There must be an assurance provided by workers and management that deliverables, which would meet all expectations, are provided on time and within budget.

 The processes above should integrate aspects such as risk management, quality management and communication management, said Prof. Steyn. 