Image: Richard Huggard
Chippa United officials are in the Buffalo City Metro for the week to offer skills development programmes to schools and coaches.
The only professional soccer team in the province kick-started their week-long schedule alongside BCM’s ward 1 councillor, Kuhle Ciliza, on Tuesday when they approached nine township-based schools to be part of the programme that will see their pupils learning from experienced football minds.
Ciliza said the R1m funding that Chippa United received from the metro as part of their memorandum of understanding (MOU) meant the PSL club had to give back to BCM residents, and she was thrilled the Chilli Boys were delivering on their promise to harness local football talent.
“We wanted to identify important programmes that will change the lives of young people in the city and we decided to come up with this programme, because many people have been asking for help in that regard,” Ciliza said.
“We decided to bring something that will benefit them even more.
“Within the institution we have an MOU with Chippa United and we are now using it for this skills development programme.
“We are going to host the Councillors Cup that will be played by four local teams and coaching clinics with nine schools participating in the programmes, and more than 12 coaches from respective clubs.”
Ciliza said top performers at the Councillors Cup tournament at the North End Stadium on Saturday would be selected to learn from Chippa United’s first team.
“The man of the matches and goalkeepers of the tournament will travel to train with the first team as a learning experience,” she said.
Chilli Boys head of development and former MultiChoice Diski Challenge (MDC) coach, Glen Minnie, said they were trying to bridge the gap between the PSL team and BCM communities, and were planning to include the event in their yearly calendar.
“We are focusing on the children and coaches,” Minnie said.
“We are going to be giving them a critical life skills course; just show everyone how to operate in professional football set-up.”
Minnie said they were hoping the programme would help them identify more local stars who would move through their development ranks as Gregory Damons and Xolani Mahola, whom he had mentored at MDC, had done.
“We want to produce more players for the first team.
“Damons and Mahola are now becoming name brands and they are local players.
“We have a lot of talent in this province so let’s harness it,” Minnie said.