The stats that every academy player dreaming of PSL football should know. (2)

In the previous article I highlighted the incredibly low numbers of players that start games in the PSL and ask the question: ‘just how aware are players, parents and coaches are of this reality?’

‘The Funnel’

Based on *estimated academy figures of 60 academies within South Africa , with 18 players per double year age group, around 540 players each year are graduating from Academy U18 football in South Africa.    That means in 2016 over 500 players born in 1998 would have graduated as u18 players from academies around the country.  How many of them were starting in the PSL four years later (at the beginning of March 2020)?  Incredibly, just 1 of them started a PSL game.  In 2017, over 500 u18 players graduated from academies and just 5 1999-born players started on that same week in the PSL.  In 2018 and 2019 combined, over 1,000 players graduated from academies and none of them were starting in the PSL in March 2020.

Of course this is not the full picture as there are younger players playing in the 2nd tier NFD (aided by the U23 rule) as well as players moving into European leagues at younger ages, with some really notable progress by South Africans in the Swedish and Portuguese leagues in recent years.  However, the numbers moving to Europe continue to be extremely small in comparison to the number of players within the academy structures in SA.

At this stage, I would like to highlight that telling kids “stop dreaming, not many will make it” is not an approach I’d advocate or support. But I do strongly support the notion that those involved in the game at younger ages need to be very clearly aware of just how tough it is to break through.  This is certainly not a unique issue within South Africa, but I’d like to suggest that its an issue that we have failed to adequately consider the implications on the lives of the kids and families entering the academy space.

*Defining a football academy:  It’s hard to identify how many academies there are in South Africa, in contrast to, say, the UK where the ‘Elite Performance Player Plan (EPPP) was established in 2012, categorising 85 academies into 4 levels.  In South Africa we have literally ‘hundreds’ of self-proclaimed academies and no established mechanism to award ‘academy status’, or to identify what an academy is, and what is not. For example, is an academy about access to qualified coaches, high level facilities and sports science? Is it the number of days trained?  Must there be other supporting components such as education, welfare and psychology?  Must there be a track record of players making it into the professional game?  Are results and league positions a good indicator?  Ultimately, no one can say with any certainty how many academies exist in South Africa; nor do we know just how many young players in this country are currently living their lives in pursuit of the ‘professional dream’.

The lack of clear statistics and parameters creates some uncertainty, but Gauteng can serve as a good starting point.  The Gauteng Development League has 32 Academies (each of which must comply with certain standards) competing in a two-tiered Academy league structure.  The Western Cape has around 10-15 set-ups that take what they do seriously.  It’s reasonable to suggest there are probably a further 10-15 set-ups amongst the other seven provinces that could claim to have legitimacy as an ‘academy’.   That gives a very loose estimation of 60 set-ups throughout the country that satisfy elements of the above mentioned parameters.