Neil Tovey 'outclassed' rivals

29 June 2015 - 02:04 By Marc Strydom

Neil Tovey's presentation had been "head and shoulders" above that of the other six South African candidates interviewed for the Safa technical director post, a source told The Times. The new technical director will oversee and accelerate the coaching of coaches, said Safa CEO Dennis Mumble at the announcement of the appointment.Safa is set to announce a healthy financial report at its congress in September, with a projected R28.5-million surplus for 2015."He agrees with us that if we want to have a successful Bafana Bafana, we are going to have to start at the grassroots," Mumble said."The junior, regional and provincial leagues and programmes are where the work really needs to be."We will still focus on making sure our national teams are successful. Bafana coach Ephraim "Shakes" Mashaba will continue to supervise all the national team coaches, according to our structure."Neil will oversee the coach education. We have a task of training 10000 coaches a year. In the last year, we coached some 5000 and one of Neil's tasks is to accelerate that programme."He also must streamline and improve our referees' training programme."Another responsibility is the youth development programme, which incorporates the under-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 leagues that are being supported by the 2010 World Cup Legacy Trust."The women's football programme also falls under the technical director's responsibility."Safa technical committee chairman Natasha Tsichlas said it was pleased to appoint a South African.Gay Mokoena, chairman of the Safa finance committee, said: " We're going to be reporting very positive results for the association ."The incorporation of school football into Safa from the SA Schools Football Association is still on the agenda and needs to be completed by September, Mokoena said.Safa was also in the process of finalising its new R107-million national technical centre...

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