A multimillion rand sponsorship has been announced for the Sanlam Kay Motsepe Cup over the next five years. The sponsors hope this will help develop and identify young talent in the high school soccer tournament.
About 4000 teams from around the country will compete in this years competition and the winning team will pocket R1-million.
Launching the annual schools football tournament in Sandton, 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 kicks 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.
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."
Source: City of Joburg website
