National Soccer League (NSL) chairman Irvin Khoza has said that one area of focus for his and the executive committee’s new four-year term is to groom the next generation of leadership for domestic professional football.
Khoza‚ chairman of the Premier Soccer League (PSL‚ the trading name of the NSL) since its establishment in 1996‚ was elected unopposed as the only nomination for the position for another four-year term at the NSL’s quadrennial general meeting in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
A new seven-person executive committee was elected from 12 nominees. The executive committee is: Kaizer Motaung (Kaizer Chiefs)‚ Mato Madlala (Golden Arrows)‚ John Comitis (Cape Town City)‚ Stanley Matthews (SuperSport United)‚ David Thidiela (Black Leopards)‚ Rejoice Simelane (Mamelodi Sundowns) and Robert Benadie (Stellenbosch FC).
Madlala has also served as acting CEO of the NSL for five years‚ as of Tuesday.
Khoza thanked the board of governors (32 DStv Premiership and GladAfrica Championship teams) for the confidence they showed electing the executive committee and its chairperson.
“Our SWOT analysis [of a business’s greatest strengths] requires us to address the threat of change‚ while highlighting the opportunity presented by innovation‚” Khoza said.
“Change for the sake of change has caused the demise of many an organisation. In pursuit of ill-timed or not well-reasoned change organisations have irreparably broken their backbones ...
“Institutions preserve their learnings. Institutions remember the lessons of yesterday in a manner that makes the change they undertake incremental.
“I believe we have reached a stage where we need to prepare for the next generation. Debriefing the next generation needs to feature prominently in the coming four-year term.
“Many of our members are still not clear about the business that we are in. They do not know for sure [the features of] our founding model.
“It is of utmost importance that the next generation have a full grasp of the business we are in.
“ ... The next term requires patience as we deliberate on the preparations of the next generation. Impatience is a lauded character of the young.
“There is a good reason that institutions that endure are patient. Institutions that endure are those that preserve the very systems that have saved them from themselves.
“ ... We are going to come up with a programme of taking a few of the young people into a skills development environment to make sure that‚ just in case we decide to step down‚ this business is in safe hands.”
The unsuccessful nominees for executive committee positions were Khumbulani Konco (Bloemfontein Celtic)‚ Rantsi Mokoena (Free State Stars)‚ Siviwe Mpengesi (Chippa United)‚ Masala Mulaudzi (Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila) and Dr Rendani Mulaudzi (University of Pretoria FC).
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