B Creecy honours Gauteng Premier Soccer League clubs

19 August 2006

Programme Director
Dignitaries
Executive Mayors, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni
Trevor Philips, PSL
Chairpersons: Benoni United and Bidvest Wits football clubs
Players
Other important guests
Officials from the clubs and government representatives
Members of the media

Good evening and welcome to the Home of Champions and the preferred home of
competitive sport.

Introduction

Thanks to everyone who has made time to be at this very important function
in the midst of champions where we have one single task to perform, that is to
acknowledge the two teams for their promotion to the PSL. The promotion of
these two teams has increased the Gauteng based teams participating in the PSL
to eight. I must say that I am exceptionally thrilled but simultaneously
concerned, due to the fact that on more than one occasion I will have to salute
one Gauteng team over the other in a final!

Address

During the past two financial years, I have re-organised my portfolio as the
MEC for Sport and Recreation in the province to align our objectives to that of
the national government as well as the provincial priorities, namely:

* to create jobs and fight poverty
* make Gauteng the preferred home of competitive sport
* use sport as an economic driver, by bidding and hosting for major
events
* partnering with strategic events hosted in our province
* ensure that we prepare adequately for the 2010 FIFA World Cup
* ensuring that all our PSL / Mvela teams play their home games within the
province, by collaborating with local government to create home bases for all
our teams as well as upgrading the stadia the teams have chosen to be their
home stadium

The above strategies have all been implemented to date and are achieving
steady progress. Most clubs now have home-based stadium and are finalising
their leases with local government. It is my contention that our professional
clubs should be administered in a professional manner but above all, be
sustainable (professional football is big business). This will mean that they
all have a home ground of their own, market themselves within a specific
community and beyond, use the facility beyond the 90 minutes, and ensure that
they have a development academy continuum attached to their clubs (under/10 to
under/21 teams).

Gauteng Cup

We have developed a Gauteng Cup Project, which will be launched in September
2006 with all our eight PSL clubs. This project will have a variety of
strategies that clubs will have to participate in (ensure development
programmes, governance, attract more spectators to the game via our short
message service (SMS) / Car competitions, build the culture of attending games
but also purchasing tickets timeously as well as encouraging designated
seating, playing all your home games in the province, etc.).

This project will be based on an accumulated point system that teams will
achieve across the season, culminating in a Gauteng Cup Competition in the off
season (July 2007) of the top four teams as per the points achieved throughout
the season. The ultimate winner will receive a prize of R1 million (excluding
vat). This project will be discussed with PSL clubs soon

To the promoted clubs, well done for making Gauteng proud once again! Your
campaign in the PSL during this season will place the province and our players
at the cutting edge and will also be in the spotlight to show-case their
talents to the national coach (when he / she arrives!).

The PSL is by far the strongest league across Africa and other parts of the
world, what we need to strengthen this year, is our ability to score goals and
to make the league even more competitive.

Conclusion

As part of the Growth and Development Strategy (GDS), Global City Region
(GCR) and the 2010 programme, I will be engaging with my colleagues in local
government to ensure that we strive to provide world class sporting facilities
to all our football clubs and sport federations, namely:

* that we assist in co-ordinating the traffic and security at all major
football and other sporting events more effectively and efficiently
* that we strengthen our South African Football Association (SAFA) structures
within the province to administer football in a much more professional
manner
* that government will continue to create an enabling environment for football
and sport to develop ‘smarter’ so that our provincial and national teams could
select the best capable participants (infra-structure, maintenance at stadia,
leases, etc.)

As I stated earlier, it becomes very difficult to single out any of the
eight teams to win the PSL League competition this season, the only thing I can
‘instruct’ you to do, ensure that it stays in Gauteng!

I thank you for your kind attention.

Issued by: Department of Sport, Recreation Arts and Culture, Gauteng
Provincial Government
19 August 2006