World Cup windfall revealed

The SA Football Association is set to unveil its plan for the $70-million World Cup windfall.

"Now it's just for South African football to focus, to roll up the sleeves and work hard," said Safa vice-president Danny Jordaan.

The former LOC CEO travelled to Zurich on Wednesday night to confirm registration of the Trust and its directors.

"Once that is done Fifa must adopt the resolution and the money will be transferred," Jordaan said.

Former LOC legacy head Greg Fredericks and Safa COO Dennis Mumble have been key figures in devising the plan. Safa should make a public announcement on its details in the next two months.

Fredericks, the Safa/Fifa World Cup Legacy Trust's interim general manager, put forward the plan at Safa's Indaba in Kempton Park last month. The proposal will be presented to Safa's board at the end of this month. Fredericks proposed that a R50-million liquid portion of the funds be used for operational costs and disbursement for the first year.

The balance (between R400 million and R500 million) will be invested for 10 years. Safa will attempt to grow the fund to R1 billion through fund-raising.

The interest of around R40-million annually, which will increase as the fund grows, will be used for further disbursements each year.

This could amount to more than R580-million pumped into SA football over 10 years, while the trust will have almost doubled in value.

"There's been no objection. I've had only positive feedback for this format," Fredericks said.

Bodies eligible for the fund are Safa, its regions, local football associations, associate members, Confederation of Southern African Football Association and Confederation of African Football member associations and NGOs.

The Safa Infrastructure Foundation will continue to raise funds for projects such as artificial pitches in each region (27 of the 52 have been completed).

The Department of Sport is putting in place plans for a revival of school football.

Jordaan said strengthening Safa's regions would create better feeder and talent identification systems at grassroots, PSL and national team levels.

He said the establishment of an academy, with satellites in the nine provinces, was part of Safa's plan to restructure SA football.

"It's a must," Jordaan said. "It's part of the plan.

"But also it must be part of a national plan. That's why the minister [Fikile Mbalula] is talking about schools sport."

Utilising the 2010 income to emulate the success of previous World Cup hosts is crucial.

"Before 1994 the US was not even regarded as a serious football nation. Today it's one of the biggest football markets, and consistently qualifies for Fifa competitions."

Jordaan said there would be an emphasis on producing qualified coaches, a glaring area where SA had been lacking.

Safa is approaching corporations to throw their weight behind SA football.

Jordaan said too many development initiatives had fallen by the wayside, which Safa would now try to revive.

"We have re-engineered the whole commercial plan. We have approached corporations because we want to bring back things like the Sparletta League, Chappies Little League and Castle under-19 league. And we want to give the provinces responsibility again. The problem was everything became centralised, and that is impossible.

"In cricket, you talk about eight franchises, in rugby 12 or 15, but in football there are 52.

"And if you put the wealth of all these 52 together it's poorer than the poorest franchise in cricket and rugby. So you have to empower them, decentralise them, help them to commercialise their structures."