SAFA is poised to appoint an u/17 national team coach after the completion of the SAFA u/17 inter-provincial tournament that kicked-off at the Nike Football Centre in Soweto today and will run until Sunday. The championships are contested by the nine provinces with u/17 teams of Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bidvest Wits as guests. There are three national selectors looking at talent here and according to SAFA President Danny Jordaan one of them could be the potential u/17 national team coach…

The qualifiers for the African u/17 Youth Championships will start in June and SA is scheduled to meet Tanzania in their first round of qualifiers in July.

The last u/17 intern-provincial tournament was held in the Eastern Cape in 2011, after two years with no activity SAFA has returned to the basics. Jordaan says the talent here in this tournament will not be lost to SAFA…

The provinces’ players come from the 52 regions and going forward Jordaan says each area should keep a database of its top talent…

The opening of the tournament was also graced by the presence of the FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke. He says through the 2010 FIFA World Cup legacy, SAFA should ensure that they have adequate development programmes that would ensure that they’ve strong teams that qualify for international tournaments…

Valcke says the model of the German Football Association that has seen them having a strong national team coming from junior national teams is a model that needs to be followed…Journalist: Velile Mbuli